The Other Wild Type
by WritingInNevermore
Summary: She was different than the others. She had survived what would cause others to break. But she wasn't a little girl that needed to be saved. At least that is what she made everyone think. Maybe being part of the host club will change Kasumii from thinking that she is unbeatable. Maybe someone there will help tame the wild girl. MorixOC OFF HAITUS
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

**A/N: I have fixed several of the errors in this chapter, as well as a few others. This story does not follow the anime or manga as far as chapters and scenes, though some events in the original material are mentioned. I hope everyone enjoys this story. The story itself is centered around my OC Kasumii, and minorly my two other OCs, Misaki and Sayuri. Mori/OC, Hunny/OC, Hikaru/OC**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.**

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I drove up to the prestigious school on my black motorcycle, turning heads as I wheeled around the limos lined up to drop off students. I stood out from the girls in puffy yellow marshmallow dresses and the boys in sky blue suits that walked around the courtyard it little groups. My own clothes consisted of my leather riding gear over my personal uniform, since I made it clear to the chairman that I would not be caught dead in something as hideous as the uniform dress. He agreed to let me create a different version of the uniform for myself and my sisters, who followed me in Misaki's conspicuous sapphire blue sports car designed personally for her just as my bike was for me.

Dismounting from my bike I took off my black and purple helmet, putting it in the compartment under the seat that I had installed to hold my helmet. The blue car rolled to a stop beside me and my dear twin sisters popped out. Sayuri smiled excitedly as she looked at the pink building before us. She was the sweet twin, as opposed to Misaki. Sayuri was younger than Misaki by a few minutes, making her the youngest of us all. She was clad in a feminine white blouse and yellow plaid skirt that stopped a couple inches above her knees, which were covered in the thin material of her white knee high socks. Her blonde hair was curled and loose around her shoulders, bringing out her bright blue eyes that she got from Mom. She was adorable.

Misaki, however, wore a white button up shirt that was open at the collar and had the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. A tie hung loosely from her neck that matched the sapphire blue of her skirt that was a few inches shorter than Sayuri's but the same style. She too wore knee high white socks with black loafers (the one part of each of our outfits that actually came from the school uniform aside from the base colors of our skirts). Her dyed black hair was pulled back from her face, though her bangs still hung above her eyes. She made it a point to look as little like her twin as possible so as to not be mistaken for her. They did, after all, look exactly the same when they both had their natural hair color.

"You really had to make a scene, didn't you?" Misaki said with a smirk as she looked at my riding outfit. I would need to change into my uniform before class started (it was a dark version of Misaki's, with a dark blue skirt and tie instead of a bright blue).

I shrugged nonchalantly as we began walking to the school. "Of course. One must always make a remarkable first impression on people." I laughed. The older of the twins grinned wildly as more people turned their heads to stare at us, the three mismatched girls that none of them knew. Today was going to be great.

"Kasu, you should really go change into your uniform. You can't wear leather to class." Sayuri said quietly.

"Oh, contraire, Yuri. I can wear it if I want to, but because you asked me to I will change. I'll see you guys later." I ran off to where I remembered the tour guide had said the bathrooms were when we had been shown around over the weekend.

Girls stared at me with judgmental eyes as I entered the restroom, meeting their haughty glares with my own confident smirk. I went to the farthest stall to strip off my over clothes since I doubted anyone would react well if I just began stripping in the middle of the room. As funny as it may be to see their shocked faces, I decided to do the modest thing, though my clothes underneath would probably earn me more glares and judgments than my riding leather. Oh well, I'd rather choose life for now. I can piss everyone off after I get settled in.

I ran into my homeroom class just as the bell rang, getting more stares as I straightened my skirt. The teacher glared at me in annoyance.

"Kasumii Asahika, I presume." He said in a bored voice. I nodded in response. "Last seat by the window. Please do not be tardy again." He instructed. I strode confidently to my seat, feeling the eyes of my new classmates bore into me. These kids apparently loved to stare.

I sat down quietly, listening to the teacher go on about class voting for a new president since the old one had apparently moved or something. I didn't know anyone so I just started analyzing the people in the classroom. There was a red haired girl two seats down, her eyes riveted on the blonde boy in the row between us. She looked like the kind of person who would do anything to get what she wanted. Beside me was a bespectacled black haired boy who seemed less interested in the topic at hand than most of the others. He was writing things in a little black notebook, reminding me vaguely of some evil mastermind developing a plan for world domination. In front of him was the blonde boy the red haired girl was staring at so intently. He had a goofy grin on his face that made me peg him as the airhead of the class. I continued analyzing everyone until the bell rang, releasing me to the one class I did not want to go to: math.

The day went on quietly, though I found myself sick and tired of being stared at before the clock even struck noon. Didn't these people have anything better to do?! Evidently not, seeing as after the last period of the day I found myself surrounded by a bunch of guys that kept asking questions about me, like where I was from, what my family did, if I had a sister, etc. It was annoying, so I did the only thing I knew to do to get away from them; I took a running leap and jump flipped over their heads (thank goodness I remembered to put shorts on under my skirt!) and began running down the hall away from the lot.

That seemed to make them mad as I darted down the hall as quickly as I could. Several of the boys began chasing after me at full speed, though I was slightly faster. I flew up the stairs and turned a corner, finding myself in the music wing. Without any second thought I opened the third music room's doors and dashed in just as the group of boys began to pick up their pace. I didn't even have time to register that there were other people in the room before the doors banged open and the group surrounded me again.

Before I tell what happened next, let me explain a couple of things. First off: I am a black belt in judo, jujitsu, and tae kwon do. Second: I am a natural born fighter. When I lived in America I was the national martial arts champion and had been given the nickname Tigress. So when I say I don't want to fight someone it's because I don't want to accidentally hurt them. But when a group of overly persistent guys decide to chase me through the school and into a music room just because I don't want to talk to them I will fight and I will win. Now, back to the story!

The first one reached out to grab my arm, but I grabbed his wrist and used his momentum to throw him over my shoulder and into a couple of the other guys. This inspired more of the boys to try to grab a hold of me to get me to be still. I effortlessly dodged them and distributed punches and kicks with ease. Within a matter of seconds they were laying in a heap on the ground and I stood unscathed with what I was sure was a wicked gleam in my eye.

"Don't ever try to touch me again." I said, implying the threat that was not needed to be said.

"Quite impressive Miss Asahika, though it is unfortunate that this display was in our clubroom."A dry voice spoke from behind me.

I spun around to face glasses guy, the same one that was in my homeroom class as well as several of my other classes. I raised my eyebrow quizzically. "And what type of club is it? I may be mistaken, but this is a music room correct? For such a room there is a lack of musical equipment." I stated, knowing that this could not possibly be a club for which this room was designed.

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" The blonde airhead from my class exclaimed as he jumped over to where I was. "This is a host club, designed to cater to the needs and desires of the beautiful ladies of this school such as yourself. We pride ourselves on treating all girls as the delicate princesses they are!" Sparkles glittered in the air as an abundance of red roses appeared out of nowhere.

"Uh, boss, I don't think she's as delicate as you think." A ginger boy said from his spot leaning against the back of a red chair. His identical twin stood in a similar pose beside him.

"Yeah, she just took out a group of guys a lot bigger than her." The other one said.

I smirked at the pair. I liked them already. I glanced around the room in curiosity, finally taking in my surroundings. The only people aside from me, blondie, and glasses were the twin boys, a brown haired boy that looked more like a girl than a guy, an elementary looking kid, and an extremely tall guy. The room itself looked like a lavishly decorated sitting area, complete with the tea and snacks set up on tables.

"Ah, but a beauty such as you is naturally as delicate as a rose." He put on what was intended to be a charming smile and held out a rose to me.

Pushing the rose aside, I decided to play a little game. "I don't mean to offend you or anything, but I really hate roses. Almost as much as I hate people who are under the impression that all women are delicate, helpless beings that need to be protected and pampered at all times. It's simply pathetic." I said, my voice getting louder and louder the more I spoke. The blonde idiot shrunk back from me as if my words were arrows piercing his body. "Its guys like you that are why I can't stand people. You think that all girls are princesses; well guess what, not all of us are and not all of us want to be treated like we are. If you want to impress me then why don't you grow some balls and stop acting like a puppy that wants to be loved. It doesn't suit anyone." I finished, sending the boy to a dark corner of woe.

Everyone stood still for a minute before a familiar voice let out a bark of laughter from the door. I spun around to see a certain pair of twins walk into the room. "You really put him in his place, Kasu-chan." Misaki said with a laugh.

Sayuri poked one of the boys that still lay on the ground with the toe of her shoe. "You held back. I wonder what they did to warrant this. You usually don't attack anyone." She remarked in her whispery voice.

"You must be Misaki and Sayuri Asahika," glasses guy stated. Misaki grinned while Sayuri blushed softly.

"Wait, so you guys are all sisters? I thought the two were the only ones." The he/she said with wide eyes. I take back what I said about him being a guy. Just the voice alone said that it was a girl, despite the uniform. She must be in class with the twins.

We all nodded to her. "The Asahika family has four children, though Kaede already graduated high school." I stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Glasses guy set down his notebook that he had been writing in and looked at all of us. "Well now, I must say it is surprising to see all three Asahika girls in one place. I understand that you are all geniuses according to your records. Be that as it may, I must request something of you. It has come to my attention that certain services are not offered at the host club that certain customers have expressed desire of. Perhaps you could help us." It was not an offer, but rather a statement.

I stood in front of my sisters protectively. "And what may these services be?" I questioned skeptically.

"It's simple really. According to records of you, Kasumii, you are a well-known singer and performer. Sayuri has been noted to be one of the best pianists and violinists of our generation, and Misaki has expressed certain tendencies in public that make her a prime candidate for a service some other customers and noncustomers have requested."

My mind went into hyper drive trying to figure out what he was talking about in regards to my black haired sister. Certain tendencies? She was rebellious, a dancer, reckless, and eccentric, but none of those could possibly be what he was talking about.

"So you want me to sing for you and for Sayuri to play either piano or violin for your club. That is perfectly acceptable. What I am concerned about is what you intend for Misaki. I am unaware of what you mean by 'certain tendencies'."

Misaki stepped forward, her hands in the pockets of her skirt. "He probably found out about me dating that Tori girl while we were in America. The media was all over it." She stated matter-of-factly. I recalled the five months that they had dated and the media had practically blown up with paparazzi pictures of them together and stories about Misaki's "secret love life" that she had hidden from pretty much everyone. Of course the family knew that she was bi, but it was no one else's business as to whether or not she liked guys or girls.

"You want me to be a hostess for girls that like girls, don't you?" Misaki stated bluntly. I watched as across the room the idiot stood back up and rushed over to us.

"Such a splendid idea! I must say Kyoya, I am glad that you have finally taken my suggestion! Now we can cater to all women!" Sparkles erupted in the air. This guy was annoying, though I was happy to finally know the name of one of these guys. "And live musicians, it will be sure to bring in even more customers! Please, ladies, I would like to formally welcome you into the host club. I am Tamaki Suoh. This here is Kyoya Ootori, the club's vice president. The twins are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. Over there with the bunny is Mitskuni Haninozuka, but you can call him Hunny. Beside him is Takashi Morinozuka, but everyone calls him Mori. And finally is Haruhi Fujioka. And now with the addition of you three lovely ladies, we are the Ouran Host Club." There was an awkward silence as the idiot struck a dramatic pose, perhaps expecting applause or something.

Instead of saying anything, I walked over to the red velvet couch and flopped down. "Okay, thanks for inducting us into the club before we gave an answer. I suppose there's nothing to be done about it. So, when does this thing start?"

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"_I'm so tired of being here_

_Suppressed by all this childish fear_

_And if you have to leave_

_I wish that you would just leave_

_Cause your presence still lingers here_

_And it won't leave me alone…"_

I sang softly from my place beside the piano where Sayuri played. The music softly filtered through the room to all those who listened. I could see tears in some girls' eyes as I sang the song. Tamaki had insisted on quiet songs, and the only soft ones that I knew were all sad, thus I sang them. I wasn't a love song fan so I couldn't sing anything like that for the crowd of girls that gathered to be fawned over by a handful of guys.

I finished the song and sat down next to my youngest sister to take a break for a bit. I had sung seven songs in a row and my throat had become rather parched because of it. Excusing myself for a bit, I wandered over to where my other sister was hosting with Haruhi. I marveled at how none of these yellow marshmallow girls could tell that "he" was a she. It was obvious. Misaki had probably already figured it out by the girl's mannerisms and voice. She was much more feminine than any guy or gay guy could even hope to be. Hell, she was almost as feminine as Sayuri!

Before I could make it over to my sister I was glomped by a certain little blonde boy who looked far younger than his age.

"Kasu-chan! You sing so prettily! Where did you learn to sing like that?" Hunny-sempai exclaimed. Several faces turned in our direction, curious as to what I would say.

"I've always been able to sing, but I did take vocal lessons while I lived in America. I was taught how to sing both classical and modern music." I explained. It's true that my voice is unique since I am neither an alto nor a soprano: more like a mezzo soprano. I also get an odd but pretty accent when I sing, which I attribute to having had both French and Italian voice tutors.

"You're Kasumii Asahika, correct?" a pretty brunette asked. I nodded. "My father is the CEO of Sukani Records. If you don't mind, could you come by the company some time to audition? The company is looking for new talent, and hearing your voice made me think of how wonderful it would be to hear you sing more." She blushed lightly as if she had said something embarrassing."

I shook my head. "I want to finish school before I do anything else. Besides, I'm not sure I even want to perform for a living. I may be second in line for the company, but my brother may need my help to manage everything. He's more of an engineer than a business man." I said politely. I'll admit, the thought of getting hired by a record company thrilled me, but Kaede needed my help more. Father expected us to co-own the company when he deemed it time to retire.

A certain black haired person hopped up from her seat with a sly grin on her face. I knew that grin and I hated it. The queen of pranks was up to bat and her victim, Kyoya, had no idea. Naturally I did what any good sister would do and called for the bespectacled boy's attention.

"Hey, Kyoya, do you think I can take a break for a while? Sayuri has the piano covered and, personally, I'm a little tired of singing quiet songs." I said innocently as Misaki crept up behind him.

He looked up in a bored manner. "I suppose so. Go mingle with some of the hosts. You are part of the club now." As he said that my sister's hand struck out and grabbed the little black book that the boy was so fond of. I watched as his eyes filled with anger and he quickly snatched it out of Misaki's hand, glaring at her like she was some sort of vermin (of course that pissed me off. She was my sister! No one looks at Misaki or Sayuri like they're anything but the beautiful young women they are. Say hello to hell Mr. Ootori).

"She shouldn't have done that. Kyo-chan doesn't let anyone see his book." A cute voice said from beside my elbow. I looked down to see Hunny clutching his pink bunny worriedly (haha, Hunny rhymes with bunny). He looked up at me with caramel colored eyes. He looked just like a little kid. "Kyo-chan doesn't tell people much. Only he knows what he writes in there."

I mused over what could be written in that little black book of his. Maybe stats on everyone he encounters? Or could it be his plans for world domination, he seems like the type to try to take over the world. Either way it was inevitably something interesting.

Seeing the angry aura around the pair of black haired people I decided to intervene before a chair got thrown at someone's head (Misaki has a bad temper. She likes to throw stuff at people when she's mad…heavy stuff).

"So, Sakie, you should probably get back to hosting. There's only half an hour left and you wouldn't want to deprive your lovely guests of any time, now would you?" I said hurridly, looping my arm through hers and pulling her away from what was quickly becoming a beast from hell.

She sighed and turned to me. "I suppose so." Quietly she whispered, "one day I'll see what he keeps in there." You and me both. You and me both.

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**Thank you to everyone for reading this. I hope y'all enjoyed this and that you will review.**


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

**A/N: This chapter was not originally in the story, but I felt like I needed to add it in to help explain a few things that happened between the original chapters one and two (now chapters one and three). I feel like this chapter adds more depth and more time to the story, even if it is rather brief. I hope everyone enjoys it. Please read, enjoy, and review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own OHSHC**

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"_I think that possibly,_

_Maybe I'm falling for you._

_Yes, there's a chance_

_That I've fallen quite hard over you."_

My voice filled the club room as I sang. Tamaki had insisted that I learn more "romantic" songs to perform for the club, much to my dismay. I didn't particularly enjoy lovey-dovey songs – or most things pertaining to fairy tale relationships for that matter. I hardly know why I even agreed to be part of the most flirtatious club in the entire school. It was probably just me being protective of my sisters, who – unlike me – very much enjoyed the romantic atmosphere of the club. But still, I did enjoy getting to sing for people and being complimented on my voice.

As I neared the end of the song my voice faded out gently. It was the last song of the day as the hosts were bidding farewell to their customers as they trickled out of the club room. I smiled politely to the girls that came up to compliment Sayuri and me. It was nice to be appreciated.

"You're drawing quite a bit of attention, Kasumii," Kyoya remarked as I passed by his table on my way to get a drink. He was typing away on his laptop as usual, not even bothering to look up as he spoke. "Since you began singing for us there has been a steady increase in customers. A few young men have even begun asking if you do any hosting yourself."

I looked at him in surprise. I had only ever met one guy that had expressed any interest in me, so it came as a bit of a shock to learn that boys were requesting me as a host. Not that I even wanted to host, of course.

"What did you tell them?" I asked, wary of the answer. Everyone knew that Kyoya would do anything to promote business.

"I informed them that for the time being you are merely singing and that they may sit in to watch you if they want, but they would have to refrain from interrupting hosting activities." He said as he typed away.

I nodded and went back to the kitchenette to grab a water bottle. Sitting on the counter in there was Misaki, as if she had been waiting for me.

As I grabbed a bottle from the fridge she hopped down and leaned back against the counter. "So, Kasu, do you know which one of these guys you're going to start flirting with yet?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. That was the thing ab out my dark haired sister: she always had her eyes set on a prize of some kind or another. It was only a matter of time until she set her sights on someone in the host club.

I shook my head as I took a swig of water. All of the guys were attractive, but I wasn't sure if any of them were my type – or what my type was for that matter. I had only ever been in a relationship with one person before and he wasn't even necessarily my "type." Unlike Misaki, I was only interested in serious relationships, not flings.

"The twins are pretty hot if you ask me," Misaki said, preparing to give me her opinions on the entire host club. "They are more of my type than yours, though. Hunny is cute, but he is too much like a little kid for my taste, even though he's the oldest. He kind of reminds me of Yuri when she's in public really. Tamaki is hot too, but way too much of an idiot. Besides, it's obvious that he likes Haruhi. Speaking of which, Haruhi is pretty, but not my type and you're not into girls, so obviously not your type either. You seem to talk to Kyoya the most, but he seems awfully manipulative if you ask me. Of course, Mori looks like a freaking god, but he never talks. Way too quiet for my liking, but for you it might work. I'd say Kyoya and Mori are your best bets." She nodded in self-satisfaction. "But out of those two I'd go with Mori…he seems to have taken a liking to you, if staring after you is any indication."

I rolled my eyes and strode out of the kitchenette, not bothering with a reply to my sister's analysis. It was true that out of all of the club members, Kyoya was the one I was closest to. The problem, though, was that his personality was far too similar to the one person I had dated in the past. According to Misaki's little list, that left Mori for me. It was true that he was probably the most attractive of all the guys, but I didn't actually know much about him, nor was I sure about what she said, that he stared at me.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. It didn't matter in the long run. In two years I would be out of this school and would probably never see any of these guys ever again. It was no use to dwell on who was the most attractive unless I actually intended on pursuing one of these guys.

Someone bumped into me, causing me to trip slightly. I let out a startled squeak as a hand gripped my arm to keep me from falling (of which I was in no danger of). Looking up, I saw Mori looking down at me with his classic unreadable expression. Much to my surprise, though, I noted the mild concern in his eyes, something that could only be seen due to my proximity to him.

I quickly jumped away, Misaki's words ringing in my ears. "Sorry, Mori-sempai, you okay?"

He nodded and tucked his hands into his pockets nonchalantly, his eyes changing back to their stoic expression as he walked away. I stared after him with my head cocked to the side, musing about what Saki had said about him, but dismissed the thoughts quickly. It wasn't worth fretting over.

Walking back over to the seating area, I lounged on one of the long couches beside where Haruhi sat. She looked over at me, but said nothing. She was probably so used to everyone else in the club that she didn't bother questioning anyone's actions anymore.

"How do you do it?" I asked her. She looked at me with her eyebrow quirked, as if to ask me what I meant. "How do you put up with all of this every day?"

Haruhi smiled slightly. "You just kind of get used to it after a while. I mean, it was weird at first pretending to be a guy and all the guys being so dramatic about everything, but after a while it just became normal." She shrugged and leaned back against the couch.

There was a shattering sound, causing me to perk up and look around for the culprit. On the other side of the room stood Tamaki glaring and yelling at the twins for some kind of rude comment, presumably about Haruhi. They were shrugging and saying it was a joke, but Tamaki was still throwing a fit amongst other things, which the boys dodged with ease. I was skeptic that I would ever get used to this sort of behavior.

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**Huzzah, now we have a bit of a reason behind chapter three! Please review what you thought of this addition.**


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

**A/N: This chapter was originally chapter two, but due to my need to add the new chapter two, it has been moved to be chapter three. For all previous readers who are re-reading the story since I have returned from hiatus, I'm sure you've noticed that I have taken off my replies to all the reviews. From now on, I will be responding privately to everyone who reviews from an account. For anons I will still be replying in the chapters. Now, enjoy the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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It's been a month since I started attending school here. For the most part it's okay, but I must make something very clear: THERE IS TOO MUCH PINK! Seriously, everything here is freaking pink and it's like being stuck in a little girl's fantasy dream house. The walls are pink, the outside is pink, even the floor is pink. It is sickening.

Aside from that things have gone rather well. My sisters and I have quickly become accustomed to the Host Club, despite their oddness. The only normal one in the group seems to be Mori, but he rarely ever speaks. I figure silence is his way of coping with his friends weirdness. I'm convinced Tamaki is even more of an idiot than I originally thought. The twins are tolerable since I'm used to that sort of behavior coming from Misaki (who has become a rather good friend of theirs). Hunny is adorable, but it is extremely unnerving to think that he is the oldest of the group considering his childlike appearance and personality. Haruhi is definitely a girl, a fact that Misaki quickly pointed out after all the guests left on the first day. And Kyoya is Kyoya. For the record, neither Misaki nor I have managed to steal the little black book yet. Although, he did say something about costumes for one day this week….

I mused over the possibilities of what the costumes may be. I know Kyoya and Tamaki had been talking about the theme during class, but they hadn't mentioned what the costumes would be. They had said it would be sort of a "heaven on Earth" themed day, which probably meant angels (which is ironic seeing as the Hitachiin twins and Misaki are little devils in their own right). I hoped it wasn't anything too embarrassing since I had noticed that some male students had begun congregating at the doors of the music room lately.

As I was contemplating what I would be dressed in, I entered the club room and was immediately assaulted by a sea of white and gold. It was like clouds had claimed the room for reproducing. Everything was white or gold, but mostly white. In the middle of the room stood Hikaru and Kaoru, who were fawning over a very irritated Haruhi. She was dressed in a white robe that covered her whole body, thankfully disguising the fact that she was a girl and yet seeming as it could have been designed for either a girl or a guy. Both the twins were dressed in matching white skirt things with gold belts and gold sandals. The other guys were dressed similarly, though different variations of the outfit. I had to practically tear my eyes away from Mori. Damn he looked good shirtless. My eyes wandered over to where my sisters were in their Grecian styled white dresses (identical of course. These guys had a thing for dressing people up in pairs).

"Good, you're here. Go change into your costume, Kasumii. Club opens in half an hour." Kyoya said without looking at me.

Grudgingly, I went to go do so, thinking that the shadow king would be better suited for a hell on Earth theme. He could play the devil himself.

In the changing room I found my costume and held it up to the mirror. It was a floor length flowy white dress with a gold waist and clasps on the sleeves. It was very pretty, though I doubted if I would ever wear it for anything else. On the floor was a pair of golden sandals. I slipped out of my uniform and into the dress, which fit me like a glove. I wondered vaguely when they had gotten my measurements, but at the same time did not want to know. The twins and Kyoya were probably the ones at fault; therefore I was hesitant to know their methods. Hopefully they had just asked either Misaki or Sayuri, but I doubted it.

Stepping out of the dressing area, I looked around at everyone else and pulled my naturally wavy hair to one side, though several strands decided that they wanted to hang down in the back instead. Dang layering. I sighed and walked forward, but I was intercepted by a certain blonde idiot and his personal hairstylist (was she on his speed dial or something?!) and was pushed into a chair. The stylist went immediately to work to pin my hair to the side, twisting it in the back and then pulling it together on the side so that it became a beautiful masterpiece.

"There, now you are perfect!" Tamaki exclaimed as the whole club came over to examine me.

"Aw, Kasu-chan, you look so cute!" Hunny exclaimed. "Don't you think so, Takashi?" He looked up at his cousin with bright eyes.

Mori looked at me fully, causing me to blush. "Ah," he said in conformation with a little nod of his head. Not much of a response, but Mori rarely gave one. I guess I'll take what I can get.

"Now, Kasumii, I already told Sayuri about this, but from now on you will be a hostess! Sayuri didn't want to, so she will continue playing the piano for us." Tamaki declared as sparkles erupted from thin air (how was this guy not flaming gay? He sparkles more than Edward Cullen).

"Who decided this?!" I yelled. I did not want to be a hostess to other girls. That was Misaki who had a thing for other girls as well as guys, not me. Personally, I can't flirt with a chick to save my life.

"I did." Kyoya said without looking up from the black book of mystery. "Don't worry; you won't be catering to girls. I have noticed that you have gained several male admirers. It would bring in quite a bit of profit if you were to host for those gentlemen. Of course, they will not be allowed to socialize with the female customers. We offered Sayuri the same, but she is more useful at the piano. Of course, she may join you and Misaki as hostesses later on, but for now she shall remain the club's musician." He looked up at me as the light flashed off his glasses menacingly.

I glared at the black haired boy. "You gave her an option about it, but not me?!" I screeched angrily. I didn't want to be a host. Period.

Hunny cocked his head to the side cutely. "Do you not want to be a host, Kasu-chan?" He pouted. Ugh, I hate when he pulls the pouty face. I may seem heartless to most people, but I really am a sucker for cuteness. I can't help it; it's like looking at a sad puppy.

"I'm just mad that he didn't ask if I wanted to be a host. I hate people telling me what to do, especially when they just chose to do so out of the blue." I explained to the little host. "I liked singing for everyone." I added quietly.

"You can still sing, of course, but it will be part of your hosting duties. The boys who you will be hosting for were drawn to your voice, so it makes sense that you will still sing." The shadow king said. I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. This was probably payback for trying to help Misaki try to steal his diary.

I shrugged, trying not to let him get to me. "Fine," I huffed out as I flopped on the couch next to Mori. Hunny jumped up onto the couch on the other side of me with a grin. How he was so happy all the time was beyond me. It probably had something to do with all the cakes he eats….

We got into position with me and Misaki sitting on the arms of Tamaki's throne. The doors opened up and we chorused "welcome" to our guests. As per usual the first influx of guests was a giggling group of girls. I rolled my eyes. Why did they always have to giggle?

It was several minutes before my first guests showed up timidly, looking skeptically at the flyer in their hands. I grinned. The poor lads didn't know what they were in for.

Sashaying over to the group of boys, I smiled charmingly at them, applying all my "heavenliness" to make them feel a bit more at ease. Or ill at ease, either one was good for me.

"You must be the ones who asked for me to be a host." I said, letting a softer tone saturate my voice instead of my usual sarcastic or blunt tone.

One of the boys nodded to me. "Yeah, we, uh, really liked your singing." He said, running a hand through his brown hair awkwardly. Good, at least this one was somewhat shy. Hopefully none of them were like the ones I had run into on my first day here.

"Thank you," I responded cheerily. "Come, follow me. Kyoya set up a sitting area for us to use." I turned and led the group over to the couches designated for my use. Sitting down gracefully, I gestured for the boys to sit down. They did so, though they were all on the edges of their seats, unaccustomed to this situation. This would be fun.

"You picked a good day to come. Tamaki insisted on having a heavenly theme to commemorate my first day as a hostess. Do you like the theme?" I asked sweetly. Heavenly my ass. I would make these guys as uncomfortable as possible so that I could go back to just singing.

A black haired boy nodded slightly, his eyes roaming over me. Obviously the position I was in lounging on the couch was doing its job. I had noticed looks from a few club members over the last week of a certain curious nature and was hoping to make them jealous so that I could give up this shindig. The only reason I was even in this damn club was to keep an eye on Misaki and to make Sayuri feel more comfortable (she didn't like being around strangers and always followed Misaki around no matter how different the two of them are). Though I must say, I was pleased to know that my efforts were working somewhat as all four of the boys stared at me in a manner that was less than innocent. Suck on that Kyoya!

"Ah, Asahika-san, where did you move here from?" The blond boy sitting by the black haired boy asked.

Smiling again, I responded, "My family moved back here from America recently. My mother is American, so naturally we have residences in the country. My sisters and I chose to live at the secondary residence here while Mother and Father are living in Tokyo at the main house so that they can keep a closer eye on the business since the main facilities are there." I explained. My mentioning of my mother's lineage probably explained a few things regarding my purple eyes (dark as they may be, they are still purple) and the twins' bright blue eyes. "And please, call me Kasumii. Asahika is too formal." I chuckled softly.

The boys smiled at me and introduced themselves. Hitoshi was the black haired boy, the blond was Hiro, and the two brunettes were Daichi, and Kado. We continued with small talk, and I actually found it to be fun once the guys had adjusted and got comfortable. The entire time we talked I felt eyes bore into the back of my head, eyes that did not like what they saw.

Finally all the guests left and I sighed in relief as I made my way over to the dressing rooms. I had almost made it there when low and behold I was captured. I struggled against the arms that dragged me to sit in Tamaki's throne. I glared up at the two red heads as the rest of the club walked over to where I was.

"You seemed to enjoy yourself." Misaki began, a sly grin creeping onto her face.

"It was almost like…" Hikaru started.

"You liked it." Kaoru finished.

I rolled my eyes at the three devils dressed in angel clothes. Of course they would do this.

"Yes, I did. I had a wonderful conversation with them and didn't hate the experience. They are even coming back tomorrow to see me again." I said with a perfectly straight face. I glanced up to my favorite host to see his jaw clench. Oh, so someone didn't like me fraternizing with other guys. Interesting. Maybe they would send me back to my former job.

Of course, Kyoya had to go ruin that little fantasy of mine. "Good, then you wouldn't mind if you are a permanent host from now on." His glasses flashed in that evil way they did. I swear he does that on purpose.

Getting up from my seat, I walked back over to the dressing room where my actual clothes were. "Just warn me next time we dress up. I hate surprises." It was a half lie. Some surprises were good, like surprise parties and presents and random acts of awesomeness. But random dress up days and unprecedented decisions were the devil.

I changed quickly into the clothes I had brought to wear after school. It was a simple outfit: tight black jeans, purple tank top, black leather jacket and black leather boots. A chain was around my neck with a silver cross hanging on it to match my cross earrings. I let my hair down so that the brown and purple tresses fell down my back in soft waves. Grabbing my bag (also black leather with silver accents in case anyone was wondering) I left the changing area and walked out to find Tamaki in his emo corner, Hikaru and Kaoru each with an arm around Sayuri, who was blushing like mad and looked like a sad puppy, and Misaki rolling on the floor laughing.

"What did you do, Yuri?" I asked amusedly. She looked at me with a horrified expression.

"I…I told him he's not our daddy. And he got upset and ran away. I didn't mean to upset him." She said in a quavering voice. My poor baby sister was such a softy. I suppose one of us had to be.

I patted her on the head. "Don't worry, there's nothing to be upset about. He just thinks this is a family and that you, me, Misaki, and Haruhi are his daughters even though we're not. He's just being delusional." I grinned as the sound of figurative arrows struck the host king's body.

"Kasu-chan, Yuri-chan, do you want some cake?" A very happy Hunny offered gesturing to the two empty seats by him and Mori. I grabbed a hold of my sister's hand and pulled her over to where the two seniors sat.

"Kasu-chan, what kind of cake do you want? We've got strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, and lemon." He pointed at each piece of cake that had – surprisingly – yet to be eaten. I pointed to the red velvet cake covered in cream cheese frosting while Yuri pointed to the vanilla one. Hunny passed them to us with a grin while Mori kindly poured us tea.

"Thank you, guys." I said as I took a bite of my cake and practically wiggled in my seat from deliciousness. Sayuri too smiled as she took tiny nibbles from her cake. Let me be the first to say that my youngest sister is not like this at home. Once she is completely comfortable around people she turns into a nicer version of Misaki and wouldn't be caught nibbling at anything. In fact, she usually eats sweets like Hunny does: inhaling. I guessed it would be a couple weeks before she actually showed her true colors to these people that we were in a club with.

I caught what I thought was a conspiratorial look in Hunny's eye, but before I could make sense of it it was replaced by his usual innocence. "Takashi and I are going to a festival this weekend. Do you two want to join?" He asked cutely. I could see in Yuri's expression that she wanted to go (she loves festivals, especially traditional ones. She's a bit of a history nerd).

Nodding, I swallowed the rest of my cake. "We'd love to. What time is it?"

"We'll pick you up." Mori said in his deep voice. I blushed lightly.

"What is this about a festival I hear?" A certain blonde idiot interrupted, bringing the attention to our little group. "Everyone, I have decided that we will all attend this festival this weekend!" He declared, earning a murderous glare from both the boys sitting with us before they controlled their expressions. I wondered vaguely how often they contorted their masks to hide what they were thinking.

The twins were automatically on board. "What kind of festival is it? If it's traditional we can get our mom to make everyone a kimono for the occasion. Maybe the girls can even wear mini kimonos." Hikaru waggled his eyebrows at the though. The perv would probably try to get up skirt pictures or something. Too bad for him I always wear shorts under all my skirts.

"It's semi traditional. There will be people in regular clothes and kimonos." Hunny explained sweetly, though I could hear annoyance in his voice.

"It would be good for all of us to go as a group since we have three new members who we have yet to learn much about." Kyoya said coolly. I made a mental note to steal his book after the festival to see what he's written about me.

Everyone was nodding except for my group, who seemed rather annoyed that our short lived plans turned into a group activity. Oh well, it would make things a little less awkward. My eyes wandered over to the tallest member of the club to find his own dark grey eyes staring at me. I looked away quickly, feeling a blush come over my face.

I stood and grabbed my bag, not daring to meet Mori's eyes. "I, uh, I should go now. I need to take care of Kai." I rushed from the room as Hikaru and Kaoru yelled at me in sync to remember to come over to their house tomorrow to help design my outfit for the festival.

I had just left the clubroom when I heard Hunny ask, "Whose Kai?"


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

**Disclaimer: I don't own the host club.**

* * *

I knocked on the door to the Hitachiin residence after school. Misaki and Sayuri were already here, leaving me to be the last one to arrive. I heard voices on the other side of the door before it even opened, giving me forewarning to the fight that was inevitably happening inside.

Kaoru opened the door with a grin. "Hey, Kasumii, we were starting to think you'd never show up." He said as something behind him crashed to the ground and more yelling was issued from the blonde idiot at Hikaru.

"Yeah, well I'm here now." I said as I walked into the foyer. As could be guessed, Tamaki had gone berserk when Hikaru had presented a very cute looking Haruhi in a mini kimono. I wondered when they would both realize that they had feelings for the brunette. Meh, let them be oblivious.

Walking over to where the calmer ones of the group sat on couches, I greeted them cheerily.

"It's about time! They already finished with Haruhi's outfit; although I'm pretty sure she'll put leggings on with it." Misaki said looking up from the fabrics that were laid out before here. I could already tell that she would pick the electric blue fabric that laid to her right. Sayuri would pick the light pink that was accented with white cherry blossoms. They were easy to predict, though Misaki would cringe if I told her that.

"Kasu-chan, what fabric do you want?" Hunny asked sweetly, indicating for me to sit in the spot between him and Mori. I sat down between them and looked over the fabrics, one in particular catching my eye.

Picking up the purple fabric with white flowers on it, I considered the silk in my hands. "I think I'll go with this one. Maybe with some black edging and sash." I mused aloud.

A hand reached over to feel the fabric in my hands. I looked up at Mori, whose hand was on top of one of mine (I doubt he paid much attention to that though). "It's nice." He said in his baritone voice.

I looked away before he could see the blush rising on my cheeks. Instead, I watched as Haruhi came out of the bathroom in her normal clothes and glared at both Tamaki and Hikaru, causing them to finally shut up. I chuckled as she told them in no explicit terms that she wasn't going to wear something so short without something covering her legs (from the looks of the lilac garment in her arms it probably only covered a couple inches of thigh, not really something the conservative Haruhi would usually wear). From the corner of my eye I saw Misaki smirk in triumph; she had probably said something to the twins before they even had her try on the outfit.

Sayuri was next to try on the kimono they had made for her. Evidently, the twins had already designed the outfits the night before. From the look of the rose pink Lolita inspired kimono they had done a very good job. Yuri looked like a little doll as white flats were added to the ensemble. I glanced around the room to see everyone's reaction to my little sister all dolled up. Everyone seemed to approve, the twins both with thumbs up along with Saki.

"Yuri-chan, you look like a princess!" Hunny exclaimed, causing the blonde to blush.

I laughed and walked up and put an arm around my sister. "My, my, my, won't you be turning heads Saturday." I teased. She blushed more, though I knew that, just like Misaki and me, she enjoyed being noticed. She was just shy about it.

A certain pair of twins grabbed hold of my arms, tearing me away from Yuri. "Your turn!" They said as they pushed me into a room along with my own kimono. I growled at them as they shut the door in my face. I don't like being pushed places unexpectedly, though after a week of being part of this club I've sort of figured out that that was the guys' favorite way of moving someone.

Mumbling to myself about twins with no boundaries, I changed into the kimono with fabric that changed from black at the skirt to purple at the top. It was embroidered with silver tigers (damn Kyoya probably got ahold of my American nickname and told the twins) and was tied at the waist with a silvery sash. I refused the silver flats they had supplied me, instead choosing my own black boots with silver chains.

I threw open the door and glared at the red heads. "Pretty outfit, but you could have just told me to change." I reprimanded them as I twirled in my kimono.

"Looks good," six people said at once, the only ones not speaking being Yuri and Kyoya. Figures. I grinned at them as I did a variety of model poses.

I sat down again between the seniors, glancing at the fabric in each of their laps. Much to my surprise neither of them – or any of the guys for that matter – had traditional clothes. I thought back to when Hunny had said that there would also be people in regular clothes. Damn boys got to wear normal stuff. Not that I'm actually complaining though; I like my outfit for the festival. It suits me.

* * *

"Misaki, get out here now!" Yuri yelled from outside her twin's door. I leaned against the wall beside her as the blonde twin glared menacingly at the door behind which our sister hid. It must be said that the Sayuri that the host club knew was vastly different from the one that her family knew. Sweet and innocent my ass. She was more like Misaki than anyone would have guessed. Hikaru and Kaoru would be proud of her if they knew what she was like. Hunny could probably have a hard time at a cake eating contest with her. It was almost amusing how little the club actually knew her.

"MISAKI ASAHIKA, GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR WE WILL GO WITHOUT YOU AND TELL ALL THE GIRLS THAT REQUEST THE TWINS THAT YOU LIKE HIKARU AND WE WILL LET THEM KILL YOU!" Sayuri screamed through the door.

Instantly the door flew open and a pissed looking Misaki walked out in her bright blue kimono with gold dragons accenting it. "Do it and I will destroy your piano." She hissed to her twin. Whoever said that twins were best friends obviously never met my sisters.

Taking the part of the peacemaker, I stepped in between the two. "Why don't you both put on your nice faces before the guys get here?" I said in a falsely sweet voice. The tone in my voice got their attention; it was the same one I used before I used someone for a live karate dummy.

The doorbell rang then and we all rushed to get there, but were beat by one of the maids. At the door was the entire host club, much to my dismay. I had been hoping for just Mori, Hunny, and possibly one of the twins to come to the door and act as our escorts, but I suppose that was too much of a fantasy to be a reality. After all, Tamaki was the leader of our little rag tag group. Why should I expect anything less than this when he's in charge?

"Don't say anything." Saki ordered the twins as she passed them. She probably thought they were going to tease her about how short her kimono was, even though they were ogling her like a starving man does a piece of meat. Twins liking my sister? Possibly. I'll have to wait to see how things pan out.

I hooked arms with Sayuri, who gave me a nervous look. Just the sight of the guys and Haruhi had sent her back to her innocent personality when only a minute ago she was screaming at her twin sister. Funny how that happens. We walked over to where my favorite seniors were standing and I grinned at them. Hunny grinned back up at me and straight at Sayuri (yeah, they're the same height).

"You guys look great!" I complimented, looking them over. Hunny was in jeans and a dress shirt with a plain grey vest and tie (A/N: like a less formal version of what he wore for the party in episode 2). Mori was also in jeans and a dress shirt, though his shirt was black with the collar loose and lacked a vest. I was quite content with his appearance.

"Aw, thanks Kasu-chan! You girls look cute!" Hunny exclaimed, looking between me and Yuri. I made note of the look he gave to my younger sister. I glanced up at Mori to see a soft smile on his face. I blushed and smiled back at him.

"Yeah." Was all he said. It was more than I usually got, so I took it. Looping my arm through his, I skipped out the door. If I were to look up at Mori's face I was sure that his expression was one of confusion, if he actually showed an emotion at all. Oh well. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the demon king was scribbling something into his black book again. Note to self: make him put down the book before trying to kidnap it.

We all slid into the limo waiting for us. As usual, the twins and Tamaki were arguing over who Haruhi was going to sit by while the seniors and I sat in a row while Saki pulled Yuri to sit by her, leaving the three idiots to sit together with Kyoya beside them. Poor Haruhi ended up squished between Tamaki and Hikaru.

"First, we will go to the games!" Tamaki declared. I rolled my eyes at his shenanigans. I was going to ditch most of the group as quickly as possible. The only ones I even planned to see for the better part of the evening were to be Yuri, Hunny, and Mori. No idiot trio, and no shadow king, possibly no devil sister either. I actually wanted to enjoy the festival.

I leaned into Mori and whispered in his ear, "So games last, right?"

He smiled slightly, just enough for anyone who was paying attention to notice. Nodding his head, he turned to look out the window again. I smirked and went back to playing with the hem of my skirt, tracing the silver tigers' stripes over and over again.

"Hey, Kasumii," Hikaru called in a bored voice. I looked up at him as he lounged back on the limo seat. "What's up with the fence around your house?" He asked, referring to the ten foot high chain-link fence just inside the decorative iron one.

Smirking, I crossed my arms over my chest. "That is to keep the tigers in." I stated monotonously. I watched as both the twins and Tamaki processed the information and began to freak out.

"You…you have tigers?" Tamaki asked in a shaky voice. I nodded solemnly in unison with my sisters. We each had our own unique pets; mine being my tigers, Saki's being her snakes and dogs, and Yuri's being her collection of small cute animals (bunny, hedgehog, chinchilla, ferret, and sugar gliders). Of course, my dear tigers had to stay outside and in their room just inside the house. They weren't feral; in fact they were quite tame, I've had all three of them since they were cubs. They just didn't particularly get along with my sisters' pets. There may have been an incident in which one of Yuri's rabbits and my tigers had come in contact and resulted in a snack for the big cats.

The twins looked worriedly back and forth at each other. "So, do they attack people?" They asked in unison.

I grinned wickedly at them. "Only gingers. They don't seem to like people with red hair. I wonder why…" I teased, watching the color drain out of their faces. "I'm surprised you two are even still here. They especially like to hunt at night." Now they were practically shaking in their seats while Tamaki looked whiter than a ghost (are ghosts even white?).

"Tigers don't attack humans unless they are starving or feel especially threatened. Most tigers actually prefer to stay away from humans." Kyoya stated. I frowned at him. Damn shadow king had to ruin my fun.

"So we won't get eaten by any tigers if we come over?" Tamaki asked with a shaky voice.

I shook my head and all three boys let out a sigh of relief. Chuckling, I muttered under my breath, "but they will attack on command." Only the two seniors on either side of me seemed to hear me, judging by the sharp turn of Mori's head and Hunny's horrified expression.

The car rolled to a stop in front of the brightly lit festival gates. The door had barely opened and I was outside in the warm night. I vaguely registered the rest of the host club exiting the limo behind me; I was too busy taking in the bright lights and music that flowed from the center of the festival grounds. With a grin I grabbed hold of Mori's and Hunny's arms and dragged them toward the lit archway that served as the entryway. Yuri trailed behind us quietly.

As soon as we were inside I darted to the right behind a booth, dragging my companions with me. We crouched down in the shadows as the rest of the club passed us wondering where on earth the four of us could have gone to.

"Here's the plan," I said in a conspiratorial whisper as we huddled together. "We're going to try to avoid the others so that we can pretend that it was just us that came. Games last. If we see any of the others we turn the other way. Got it?" They nodded their heads and we all stood up and walked out of the shadows. Before we could walk far I let the two seniors go ahead of us and I grabbed Yuri by the arm.

"Stop the act for the night." I whispered quietly in her ear. "Hunny obviously likes you, so you should let him see who you are." She blushed and nodded. We hurried to catch up with the guys and I slipped my arm through Mori's and smiled up at him. Hopefully everything would go without a hitch.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

"Kasu-chan, look! It's a pretty tiger necklace!" Hunny exclaimed, pointing to the silver cut out pendant hanging from a silver chain.

Looking at it I nodded and smiled. Obviously my affinity for the animals had become a well-known fact among the club members recently (maybe it was the nickname, maybe it was my pets). I held the little necklace in my hand, considering it in the lantern light.

Another hand came from over my shoulder and grabbed the necklace. I mock glared at Mori as he handed it over to the vendor along with his debit card. The woman behind the counter smiled at us as she rang up the purchase and handed both the necklace and Mori's card back to him.

"I could have bought it myself." I said sullenly as I put the necklace around my neck. Yuri chuckled from beside Hunny.

"I wanted to get it for you." Mori said quietly. It may have been the lighting, but I could have sworn I saw him blush a bit as I smiled sweetly up at him.

Turning to Hunny, I whispered conspiratorially to him, "Yuri's favorite animal is a rabbit." I pointed discretely at the white bunny plushy at the next booth over. He grinned and nodded. With an energy that I attributed to a constant sugar rush, Hunny grabbed my sister's hand and pulled her over to the booth that sold stuffed animals. I chuckled as Yuri glared at me, knowing that I was at fault. Her attention was pulled away from me as Hunny directed her toward the bunnies.

"Mitskuni hasn't paid that much attention to someone since elementary school." Mori said (oh my gosh, that was more than he usually says at one time!).

I looked up at him before tugging on his arm, bringing his dark gaze to meet mine. "I'm glad he's happy. I know Yuri is." I smiled up at him.

An irritating voice spoke from behind us. "What a surprise to find you here. I haven't seen you for sooo long." I froze in place hearing the voice. It was like nails on a chalkboard to my ears, that sound that makes you cringe from hearing it. He couldn't be here. I didn't want him to be anywhere near me.

"Aren't you going to say 'hi', Kasumii-chan?" He goaded as my nails dug into Mori's arm. "We used to be so close. Don't you remember?" I could feel his fingers graze against my arm just before I turned around and slapped him. He looked appalled as I glared at him. I could sense Mori's rising concern as the boy merely smirked at me.

"Ah, so the little tiger does have claws. I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten me, Kasumii-chan. After all, it's been so long since we last saw each other. It took forever to find where you went after you left America." His green eyes searched for answers in my face.

My hands clenched into fists as I let go of my friend's arm and advanced toward the boy. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to see you again."

He raised an eyebrow at me with that stupid little smirk still plastered to his face. "But I wanted to see you. I never got a proper goodbye."

"Go to Hell." I spat out. Before I ended up murdering the guy, Mori caught hold of my wrist. I looked up at him, my glare still plastered on my face. He just shook his head at me. I knew he was right; this guy wasn't worth it. I let out a shaky growl.

"If I ever see you again I will call the police." I told the guy, which made him chuckle.

"And what good will that do? I'm still here, aren't I?" He challenged.

Now it was my turn to smirk. He may know where I was, but he had no idea who I was friends with. "Yes, but that was the regular police. I have connections that would enable me to enlist the assistance of a private police force to detain you. They don't let people go on good behavior." I turned around with that and pulled Mori with me away from the guy that I despised even having to breathe the same air as.

I paused on our walk away only to text Yuri that we were headed off to a different area and to keep a low profile. Heaven only knew what that guy would do to get to me.

We walked (more like sprinted) away from the vendors and over to where a large crowd was around a beautiful harpist. Once we were lost in the crowd I let go of the breath I hadn't been aware that I was holding. I let go of Mori's arm and moved to find a bench to sit down on. Mori followed me and sat down beside me, a concerned look still on his usually stoic face.

"Who was that?" He asked.

I looked down at my hands. I really didn't want to talk about him, especially to Mori. The host club – with the exception of Kyoya because he has spies everywhere – knew very little about my past. All they knew was a brief and extremely vague synopsis of my time in America and a little bit about my family history. Other than that they were all in the dark. I had the advantage of not usually being in the media, so they couldn't look up much about me from newspapers or magazines. I was essentially off the grid, save for a few pictures and articles about my family members. I didn't want any of them to know this little piece of my story, but looking at how concerned Mori was, I knew that I at least had to tell him.

"His name is Katashi Sato. Our families are business partners, and have been for several years. They manufacture automobile parts for our company. Their business is located in America, which was the reason my family lived there for several years. My parents and his have been friends since they were in high school. They decided that he and I were to have an arranged marriage. I dissolved it." I explained. I wouldn't tell him why I called off the marriage; I didn't want him or anyone else to know. It wasn't even on the record that I was sure Kyoya had already gotten ahold of. I hated Katashi more than anything for what he had done.

I felt Mori's calloused hand wipe across my cheek. I was startled to realize that my cheeks were wet from tears I hadn't known I was shedding. Furiously, I wiped them away. I hated it when I cried. Before I could do anything Mori put his arm around me. I wasn't sure if he was just being nice (like I guessed he was) or if he had another intention in mind aside from comforting me (as suggested by what I'm guessing was supposed to be a date). I leaned into him either way and enjoyed being so close to him. I couldn't help but notice that he smelled like a sort of musky foresty scent (the only way I can really describe it). It was nice.

We sat there for several minutes before the quiet music was interrupted by the loud boom of fireworks. We looked up at the sky as the bright white lights lit up the night sky. I smiled to myself in memories of 4th of Julys in which Misaki would set of fireworks unexpectedly or blared an air horn behind Kaede. Good times.

Another flash of light caught us by surprise. It wasn't a firework; rather, it was a camera. A camera in the hands of Kaoru. I glared at him as I straightened up and Mori withdrew his arm from my shoulder. The three idiots, plus Saki, Haruhi and Kyoya, were staring at us quizzically…most of them anyway. Tamaki was freaking out, saying something about his little girl being touched by a boy. We all just tuned him out.

Haruhi thumped down onto the bench beside me with a worn out expression and a sigh. I had a sneaking suspicion that Tamaki and the twins had worn her out (though I had no doubt in my mind that my own sister was part of the wear-Haruhi-out group). I have her a sympathetic smile before turning to the devil twins passing the camera between themselves to look at the picture of Mori and me.

"What do you guys want?" I groaned out. They all just looked at me like I had grown antlers.

"We've been looking for you guys all night." Hikaru said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course, that was between games and stuff." Saki added.

"Where are Sayuri and Hunny?" Kyoya asked, looking around for the missing blondes. I shrugged. They could take care of themselves. I wasn't the only member of my family with proficiency for martial arts, and I know for a fact that Hunny is a living weapon. I was far from worried about those two.

I said as much, watching as Tamaki began to freak out over the two missing club members. I wondered vaguely if he ever shut up, or if he just went from subject to subject like a hyperactive squirrel going from tree to tree. Rolling my eyes, I stood up from the bench and walked over to the steps that led up to the platform where the harpist was playing. From there I could see most of the people in the crowd, including two particularly small blondes. With a smirk on my face, I hopped down from the steps and weaved my way through the crowd over to where the pair waited with bright smiles and – I noticed with scheming joy – a giant white stuffed bunny and ice cream cones.

I gave them both an approving nod as we waited for the other seven to join us on the edge of the crowd. When they joined us Misaki threw herself onto Sayuri in a giant hug, exaggerating over how worried they had all been that she and Hunny had gotten lost and whatnot. She was almost as bad as Tamaki and the Hitachiin twins.

Leaning back onto the conveniently placed tree that we were next to, I smiled as the last of the fireworks were released into the sky in quick succession. I sensed the presence of a certain someone leaning beside me. Without even looking to see who it was I leaned my head over on his arm (I would lean on his shoulder, but the guy is probably six foot – five or somewhere around that while I'm five foot – seven).

"Thank you." I said. He hummed a reply, though I really didn't need him to say anything. I knew what he meant.

Monday afternoon came too soon and I found myself in the club room after avoiding a hallway full of angry looking girls. I shrugged it off. They were just jealous that I don't have to wear a yellow tent to school (evil smirk). They had been glaring at me all day for no reason. Of course, that specific reason became well known as soon as I walked into the music room.

In the middle of the discussion table was a series of photos from the weekend, the largest of which being me leaning on Mori on the bench. Others were of other members of the club from the time that Mori, Hunny, Yuri, and I had snuck off to ditch them. I automatically knew that these pictures were the cause of the angry and jealous looks I had been enduring all day. Naturally, I blamed the shadow king. He probably had it all planned out from the beginning to make more of a profit. Of course I knew that no pictures of Haruhi would be sold or posted, probably with the excuse that she didn't go with us.

The club members were all sitting around the table, their gazes on me as I slowly crossed the room to join them in the meeting. I glared at the twins and Kyoya, the formers slinking low in their seats in sync as a result of my violet gaze of hell. Taking my seat between Mori and Yuri, I looked questioningly at all the members of the host club. The air was not nearly as light hearted as usual; not even the twins or Saki were talking.

"Now that we are all here, I have something to announce." Tamaki declared, standing up from his seat. All eyes went to him as he struck a pose. "During the break, the club is going to go on vacation together!" His eyes glittered in excitement at the idea.

I mentally pulled up the school calendar and wondered when the next break was. It had been just over a month since I began attending Ouran, surely there wasn't a break already coming up. According to the calendar that magically appeared behind the host king, there was. And it was in three weeks. Three weeks to plan and get ready for a host club group vacation.

"We want to go to Australia!" The twins exclaimed excitedly. The idea was quickly shot down due to the fact that Haruhi was still without a passport (a situation that no one seemed keen on rectifying any time soon even though all of us could afford it for her easily). The beach was also out since apparently the club had gone to both a resort and Okinawa in the two months of school before my sisters and I had begun attending here.

"How about we just go to a mountain resort?" I suggested, drawing everyone's attention to me.

"Our family owns one up in the Hida Mountains." Saki interjected, throwing me a grin. If there was one thing that all three Asahika sisters had in common, it was that we loved the mountains. Our parents had a manor built up in the Hida Mountains for us for Christmas a couple years ago, and had even hired a year round staff for the place. It had plenty of room for everyone since Mother had insisted on having extra rooms built just in case we wanted to have a group of people come with us.

Kyoya looked up from his laptop. "I see no reason not to. If we go to the Asahika's resort we won't have to worry about renting rooms. The only thing we would have to worry about in the way of expenses would be travel."

Saki, Yuri, and I simultaneously let out a bark of laughter. Clearly he did not remember what our family did for a living.

"We can cover the travel too." Yuri said in her quiet voice. "We'll just take the jet. Kaede designed it specifically to be able to handle flying in the mountain range. It's one of a kind and everyone can fit. I'm sure our pilot won't mind." She smiled.

"That settles it." Kyoya said as Tamaki wagged his tail back and forth in glee. "We will go on a trip to the Hida Mountains during the next break."

* * *

**Katashi POV**

Looking at the tigers staring through the gates at me I knew that this was the place. Kasumii never would live anywhere without her precious tigers. I wondered if she remembered when she first got the three cats when they were little kittens. I was there with her. It had been my idea to surprise her with them since she loved the animals so much and her nickname was Tigress. I'm the one who started calling her that in the first place. I wondered if she had blocked me out of her memory. Judging by the guy she was with the other night, she had moved on.

I grimaced at the memory of the festival. I had meant to reconcile with Kasumii, but she seemed more interested in hating me. I had no reason to anger her; I wasn't a fool. All I wanted was a second chance, a chance to get her back. Mistakes had been made and she had misunderstood the situation. If it wasn't for that we would still be engaged. I pondered over what her relationship with the guy from Saturday was. From my research his name was Takashi Morinozuka, Japanese kendo champion. The last thing I needed was to piss off Kasumii and have her send him to do her dirty work. She never did like to fight her battles outright.

"Master Sato, would you like to leave?" My chauffer asked with a bow. I turned to him and nodded.

"Yes, though we will be returning in a few days. It seems Miss Asahika is not present at the moment." I replied as I slid into the car. I would have Kasumii back one way or another. I knew her better than most and would use everything I knew about her to my advantage. She would not get away from me this time.


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

**A/N: There is a time lapse of a few days between the last chapter and this one.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

"Kasumii, we heard that you are going to record an album, is that true?" Kado inquired near the end of club hours. I smiled at the boys that leaned forward eagerly, seeing as the entire reason they even started coming to the club was because of my singing.

"It's a demo album, but yes. It's nothing professional, but the club will be selling copies. I'm not too sure about the songs that I have on there, so it'll be a bit before anyone can listen to it." I explained, blushing from embarrassment. I didn't want to make my singing a big deal, but Kyoya insisted that it was for the good of the club. Oh yes, CD's would sell incredibly well and bring in quite a bit of profit (greedy bastard). Needless to say, he won out.

"Well, I suppose we should go. See ya, Kasu!" Kado said as he and the other guests stood up to leave. I bid them farewell and stood up as soon as they were out the door. With a stretch that popped my back and caused Tamaki to flinch from the unladylike sound, I jumped up and strode over to the back of the couch where the seniors and Yuri were sitting.

Reaching over the back of the sofa to the point that my feet were off the ground and I was balancing with my hips on the back of the couch, I reached for the piece of cheese cake that was just begging to be eaten. Hunny scooted a bit farther away from me. It was as if he could see the future, because the next thing I knew, I was tipping over and had to use my hands on the coffee table to keep myself from falling face first into either the table or the floor.

An arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me all the way over the couch and then sat me down between its owner and Hunny. I grinned at Mori and thanked him before going back to grab the piece of cake that had been my goal in the first place. Flopping back onto my seat, I happily dug into the dessert.

"Once you are finished with that, Kasumii, I need you to come here." The words floated over to us from where the devil incarnate sat on the other side of the room. I stuck my tongue out childishly at him. Oh king of the glasses could wait for me to get there when I deemed the time good. I did enough for him as it was.

Mori offered me a cup of tea, which I gratefully accepted with a chipmunk-like smile (my mouth was full of delicious cheese cake). I gulped it down quickly to follow my bite. He let a soft smile grace his face as he lifted a hand to my cheek to wipe off a crumb of crust. I blushed furiously as Mori pulled his fingers away from my cheek. I wondered vaguely if he could feel how hot my skin was when he touched my face.

"Why 'ya blushing?" Misaki whispered in my ear none too quietly. I jerked in my seat from surprise as her breath hit my ear. I swatted her away as she chuckled knowingly.

Grunting, I stood and strutted over to where Kyoya was waiting for me patiently *not*. He looked up from his laptop as I approached and gestured to the seat beside him.

With a serious expression, he spoke in hushed tones so that only I could hear him. "I received an email recently from an anonymous source." He turned the computer halfway towards me so that I had to lean over to see it.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when I realized the attachment was a magazine article from my time in America, the very article that I had paid the publishers not to release. It had a picture of me with a bruise on my face beside a picture of Katashi looking smug. The headline read _Arranged Marriage Cancelled: the Scandal Behind the Annulment_. I could feel tears prickling at my eyes, but I held them back. I knew exactly who had sent the email and knew that the article was biased.

"What is this about? If there is an article like this out about a member of the Host Club, it could be detrimental to your reputation." Kyoya said with a softer voice.

I stared at the article that spilled out the wrong side of the story. I knew what Katashi was up to, and I did not want him to win. "That is the article that I paid not to have published to any source. Only a few people have a copy of this, me being one of them. But it doesn't say the real article. Katashi Sato is the one who was interviewed for the article and he changed the story." I explained. "Please don't tell the others about this. I don't want them to know."

Kyoya nodded after a moment of hesitation. "I will not tell, but you may want to let certain people know the truth of what happened. They deserve to know." He stated as I stood up. I nodded solemnly, knowing to whom he was alluding to. I glanced at the person, who was sitting silently with the other two of the group. He did deserve to know the whole story, but not right now. I didn't want to actually talk to anyone about the matter of my annulled betrothal. It was no coincidence that this article had shown up so soon after running into Katashi at the festival.

I walked back over to my three favorite club members and Saki, who all looked at me questioningly. As I passed by Saki, I pressed the object I had slipped off the table into her hand. She nodded discretely at me and skipped back over to the twins, her ponytail bouncing with each step. I sat back down between the two seniors and leaned back into the couch.

"What did Kyo-chan want?" Hunny asked sweetly.

"Oh, we were just discussing the demo that I'm going to be doing. Just finishing up some little details." I lied. I didn't want any of them to know what the subject of Kyoya's and my conversation was. They didn't need to worry.

Hunny turned back to playing with Usa-chan and Yuri. I didn't dare look at Mori. I could feel his disbelieving gaze on me as I reached for my tea. He didn't believe me and I knew it. For some strange reason he could see through me as if my mask was made of glass. It was unnerving how well he could read me even when everyone else believed my lies. I wished it was mutual. He was as easy to read as a brick wall most of the time. Occasionally I could catch glimpses of what laid beneath his stoic mask, but not often.

"Kasu, are you okay?" Yuri asked as she noticed me squirming slightly in my seat. I nodded my head and she went back to Hunny and Usa-chan.

A few minutes later I got up again and excused myself from the club room. Grabbing my bag, I practically sprinted out the door. With haste I ran out to the parking lot and hopped onto my bike. It was then that I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Without even thinking about it, I grabbed hold of the hand and flipped the person over me and onto the floor. Much to my surprise the person landed on his feet, reversed our hands so that he was holding my wrist, and pulled me to him. My eyes widened in surprise as Mori held me close to his chest. I relaxed after a moment and wrapped my free arm around his waist in an embrace. He knew me better than most, even though he didn't know my past.

"If you want to talk about it, I'll listen." He said. I looked up in surprise. Even though I was closest to him out of all of the guys in the club Mori still didn't talk much to me. It was usually just an understanding silence between us.

I nodded my head and pulled away. "Not here. Can we go somewhere? I need to get away from here."

He nodded and waved to where a limo was waiting for him. I walked over to the black vehicle with him, hugging myself all the while. Mori opened the door for me and gestured for me to slide into the back seat before he himself followed me into the car. He directed the chauffer to take me home, saying that he would take care of my bike later. Mori was right. I really didn't need to be driving in this emotional state.

We rode in silence, just watching as buildings passed by in the windows. I mulled over what I was to say. Could I tell him the truth? Should I just lie and come up with something on the spot? No, he could read me like a book. He would never believe a lie. But how could I tell him exactly what had happened? I had barely known him for more than a month. And yet…I trusted him more than I did most people.

The car stopped in front of my house much sooner than I had expected. We got out and I led Mori over to the side entrance, the only one that you didn't have to go through the tigers' pen to get to. It also had the most security with motion sensors, cameras, and an eye scanner just to unlock the door as well as the key. We got in and I headed straight to the kitchen with Mori following me. I vaguely wondered if Mori would start seeing more and more of my home every time he came over…if he came over again….

I hopped up onto the kitchen counter and tossed him a bottle of coke as I opened one for myself. He sat down at one of the stools positioned beside the counter. I took a deep breath of air before beginning to speak.

"Kyoya got an email from someone that I don't talk to anymore. Katashi Sato." His body grew rigid at the mention of the name. He obviously remembered who the guy was from Saturday. "He sent him an unpublished article from my time in America. It was about why I called off the engagement, but it has the wrong information. It has his side of the story." I pulled out my laptop from my bag and brought up the file containing the article. I pushed the computer towards Mori so that he could see the pictures that went along with the story. I carefully watched his expression change (well that's something uncommon) into one of fury.

"He was drunk one night and I caught him hooking up with some random chick in my room. I tried to leave, but he saw me and grabbed hold of my arm. I started to fight him, but he threw me onto the bed as the other girl ran out of the room. I kept trying to fight him and eventually he got annoyed with me and hit me back in the face and broke my arm. I blacked out for a bit, and when I woke up he was gone. The next day I called for the engagement to be cancelled. He got mad and started stalking me even after I got a restraining order against him. Eventually my family ended up moving back to Japan to get away from him. I guess he followed me here." I explained, wiping tears from my eyes before they could even make it down my cheeks. Part of it was a lie, though. I knew what happened, but I couldn't tell Mori. There was a part of me that wanted to, but the truth was that I had been taken advantage of, forced against my will. I couldn't tell him that.

Mori stayed silent for several moments after I finished my story. I didn't dare look at him for fear of what he was thinking. Maybe I should have lied. Maybe I should have come up with something about a family member in the hospital (it would make sense since Kyoya was the one who was talking to me). I stood up and was about to run off to my room when Mori caught my arm and pulled me onto his lap. I instantly wrapped my arms around him and tucked my face into the crook of his neck as the tears finally ran down my face.

"It's okay, Kasumii, I won't let him near you again." He whispered, holding me tightly in his arms. I sniffled and nodded silently. It made me feel better to hear him say that, to hear him tell me that everything was okay. It had been so long since I had felt like everything was okay, that my past wouldn't come back to haunt me against my will. I had been broken by Katashi…maybe one day I would be fixed.

Cradling me in one arm, Mori stood up and carried me over to the couch in the other room. He set me down and picked up the remote from the coffee table. Sitting down beside me and pulling me to nestle into his side, Mori turned on the TV onto _Young Justice_(I had both seasons on DVD). We sat there on the couch and watched several episodes until I fell asleep leaning against my friend.

* * *

I woke up to several familiar voices that seemed to be trying to keep quiet. Slitting open my eyes, I saw that the TV was off and two pairs of twins along with a certain blonde boy were staring at me with smirks. I tried to sit up to confront them, but the arm that was around my waist just pulled me closer to its owner. Glancing beside me, I saw that Mori was asleep on the couch. Lying down. With me in the same position. Holding onto me tightly. I felt the hot blush creep up my face as I realized that he must have fallen asleep after moving me to lie down to make me more comfortable. I tried to pull away, but he just pulled me closer to his chest and buried his face in my hair.

Looking beseechingly up to the others who were looking at us with evil expressions on their faces, I found no help from any of them. They were too busy enjoying this to offer any assistance in helping me get up. Ugh. They probably already took pictures knowing the Hitachiin twins. I had no doubt that money had exchanged hands when they found us. Sayuri and Misaki were no doubt the ones to profit.

With a groan, I whispered to my little audience, "Can you please help me?"

Both sets of twins grinned at me with matching Cheshire grins (really creepy in the dim lighting, might I add). "You could always…" The girls started.

"Kiss him." The male twins finished.

I looked up at the four of them as if they had grown antlers. I was not going to kiss Mori, no matter how adorable he was when he was asleep. In fact, I wasn't going to kiss him period because we weren't in a relationship or anything other than friends (*cough* right now *cough*). My sisters surely knew that I wasn't going to kiss a guy I wasn't dating, even if I did have a bit of a crush on him.

"I'm not going to kiss him!" I whisper-shouted. All five of them looked at me with disbelief.

"Why not?" Hunny asked innocently. I was so glad that Mori was asleep for this. All five hosts in front of me had figured it out and just had to feel the need to discuss my actions and reasons behind them.

"Because," I hissed, "I'm not going to just kiss someone I'm not dating! It's not right to just kiss someone if you're not in a relationship with them."

Hunny cocked his head to the side like a puppy. "So do you not want to kiss Takashi?"

I practically rolled my eyes at the question. Now they just wanted me to say it out loud for their benefit. Despite not wanting to give into what they wanted, I replied, "Of course I do. But I won't right now."

The grins got impossibly wider as the group heard what they wanted. "Good. Now tell that to Mori when he wakes up." Saki said as she skipped off arm in arm with the twins.

Yuri and Hunny smiled at me sweetly before skipping off to the second kitchen where Yuri and I hid all our sweets. I had the strange feeling that we would need to restock after tonight.

Once again I was alone with Mori, though I was the only one awake. I sighed and settled back down on the couch, resting my head on the pillow that he must have grabbed after I fell asleep. I was so glad he didn't hear our conversation. I would have died from embarrassment if he actually heard me say any of those things. I liked Mori, very much in fact, but I was determined that he was to make the first move if there even was to be one (and comforting me like he has does not count). I may be fairly outgoing with things and headstrong, but I did not want to make the first move in regards to a relationship. That was the guy's job.

An idea occurred to me that made me blush slightly at merely the thought. I wriggled my hand out from between us and gently touched Mori's face (let me say, guys should not have such soft skin, but I'm not complaining).

"Takashi, please wake up." I said softly, but loud enough to hear. I could feel him move slightly in his sleep as he began to wake up, his eyebrows furrowing cutely. "Takashi, please," I said again. This time his eyes fluttered open and I blushed as he smiled softly at me.

"Mmm…you're cute when you blush." Mori mumbled. I blushed more. Hunny had told me how Mori got talkative and said weird things when he was tired, so I figured he was groggy from sleep right now. There was no way he would actually say something like that when he was wide awake.

I sat up now that he wasn't holding me quite so tightly. Mori frowned slightly as I created space between us. He looked adorable as he practically pouted at me.

"Ah, Mori, it's getting kind of late…" I didn't really know where to go with that train of thought. It was only seven-thirty; hardly late at all. Plus Hunny and the twins were off somewhere else in the house with my sisters. Maybe I should ask what he wanted for dinner?

My attention reverted back to Mori as he sat up on the couch. "That's not what you called me before." He pointed out, referring to my use of his nickname.

I rubbed my hand on the back of my neck sheepishly. "Well that was just to get you to wake up. I'm going to order pizza for dinner since Saki and Yuri decided to invite some other people over for the evening, so I kinda needed you to wake up. And you wouldn't wake up to anything else…" I blabbered in a rush. He smiled lopsidedly before wrapping an arm around my waist. "Um, Mori, what are you doing?" I stuttered nervously.

"Stay here. You're soft." He mumbled. I sighed. This was going nowhere and pizza really sounded good right now.

Knowing the one thing that would let me get to my phone that I had left with my bag on the kitchen counter, I said, "Takashi, please let me go."

Mori's eyes widened slightly and he smiled as he let go of my waist. I jumped up quickly to keep from being grabbed again. Walking into the kitchen, I glared at the three sets of eyes that were looking at me with smirks on their faces. I picked up the phone I had left on the counter and dialed one of my favorite numbers; the local pizza joint. I ordered several pizzas to be delivered as everyone looked at me with curious faces as to what I was ordering. Naturally, I kept my voice low enough for none of them to hear from their distance.

Turning around, I hopped up onto the counter as the others slunk out from their hiding spots on either side of the door frame. Mori walked in as well, his stoic expression back on his face. I purposefully looked away from him and focused on the others. From the way they were looking between me and Mori like predators looking at their prey I knew that they had seen everything in the living room. All five of them were smirking deviously like they had a plan in store; a plan that I wanted nothing to do with but knew that I was a key component of it. They all loved to meddle in other people's lives.

The twins circled around the counter and stopped at my laptop that I had left open. Hikaru swiped his finger across the keypad and I realized that neither Mori nor I had clicked off of the folder I had open and that I hadn't put a password on the computer. With lightning fast reflexes, I shut the computer and clutched it to my chest like my life depended on it. Both Hitachiin twins looked at me with shock. I couldn't tell if they were shocked by my actions or if they had seen the picture of my bruised face. I prayed that it was the former.

With a blush creeping up my neck I jumped down off the counter and bolted to my room, this time with my bag and my electronics. I locked the door behind me as I heard the footsteps follow me down the hall. Throwing my stuff down onto the bed, I looked at myself in the mirror. My brown and purple hair was a mess of curls, my violet eyes widened in a mixture of emotions. I took a ponytail holder from my vanity and quickly pulled all but my bangs into a messy bun. At least there were some ways that unruly hair could look good with little effort. My clothes were rumpled from sleeping on the couch, my shirt even being half untucked from my skirt. With a sigh I changed clothes into a pair of khaki colored shorts and a black tank top with only an anklet for an accessory. I splashed cool water on my face in my bathroom to help calm my nerves. I wanted this day to be over and done with already.

Right then my phone rang. I picked it up, not recognizing the number.

"Hello?" I said, unsure who the caller was.

"Kasumii, so nice to talk to you again." The cool voice on the other side of the phone said. I dropped the phone back on my bed instantly.


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

_Knock, knock. _"Kasumii, are you okay?" Yuri asked from outside my door.

I stood there in shock staring at the phone that lay on my bed innocently. I had changed my number, my home, even the places I hung out at. I had changed nearly everything to get away from him, so how did he find me? How did he even find out who I was friends with and how to contact them? Unless…

I felt so violated right then. The only way Katashi could have found out where I was and how to reach me would that he had had someone spying on me the whole time. And he would do it again if I ran away from my problems again. He was my curse and my bane.

There was another knock on my door, drawing me away from my thoughts. "Kasumii, what's wrong? Come on, you need to come out. Pizza is here." Misaki spoke this time, using my love of food to her advantage.

Cautiously, I cracked open the door only to be bombarded by six rather concerned looking people. Saki held up a box of cheese pizza to me as an offering, one that I accepted eagerly seeing as I hadn't eaten since lunch. I pushed the door open further to allow them all in. Yuri gave me a sympathetic smile and went to go sit on my bed…right beside the phone that I hadn't hung up yet. Could this day really get any worse?

Evidentially it could. Yuri noticed the light on the screen and picked it up cautiously.

"Who is this?" She asked sweetly. I saw her face change to one of terror and fury as the person on the other end of the phone answered. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN KASUMII'S LIFE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. YOU ARE A BASTARD AND DESERVE TO ROT IN HELL. IF YOU EVER TRY TO TALK TO HER AGAIN I SWEAR I WILL PERSONALLY SEND YOU BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU CAME FROM!" She screamed into the phone, causing all of the guys to look rather taken aback. Haha, they all probably thought Sayuri was a genuinely sweet and innocent person. I would have loved to see Katashi's face right then. Even he was terrified of my blonde sister when she was mad. I loved it.

Yuri threw the phone across the room so hard that it shattered against the wall. The guys' jaws all nearly dropped to the floor. None of them saw that coming. Aw, sweet irony. No one would ever suspect sweet and innocent Sayuri Asahika of having three black belts and a horrible temper to go with it. She masked it pretty well since she didn't want anyone to think she was a mean person. She's actually the one that put Katashi in the hospital after the incident when I told her what happened (I wanted to do it, but she insisted on being the one to hurt him since my arm was broken at the time). Yuri was the human version of an oxymoron.

"What just happened?" The twins yelled out in sync. I merely smirked at their stunned expressions as Saki wrapped an arm around our little sister.

"Hm? Don't you know? Yuri is the queen of martial arts in this family. Kasu and I may be black belts in the same disciplines, and Kasu was the American martial arts champion for three years in a row, but that is only because Yuri didn't compete in any of the tournaments. I guess you can say she's a lot like Hunny-sempai; sweet and innocent seeming with a dangerous side." Saki explained calmly. She didn't look the least bit phased at what had happened. "Oh, and she has a horrible temper with some people. I guess one of those people called Kasu." She shrugged nonchalantly.

The boy all stared between the three of us in what I believe was shock and awe. They all had seen me in minor action; they probably were having visions of Yuri going badass on some poor soul. Meh, a girl's gotta be able to protect herself. A little shock factor was more than called for.

I turned to see Mori staring at me with a protective look on his face. He had probably correctly guessed the identity of the caller from the way Yuri had yelled at him. I looked away quickly, afraid to see the pity that everyone else had for me when they heard my story. I didn't want him to pity me; I didn't want anyone to pity me. No sympathy; rather, I would prefer empathy, but I rarely got it. Little rich girls barely even got sympathy from most people.

Thankfully, hunger got the best of everyone and any conversation that would have led to my secret being revealed died off as we all stuffed our mouths with delicious pizza. My room was soon littered with empty boxes and soda cans as the food disappeared as soon as it had appeared at the door. Then again, this wasn't something uncommon for my room: any time the maids and cooks were given a day off Saki, Yuri, and I would just order take out and watch anime.

"So what was on the laptop that you didn't want us to see?" Hikaru asked waggling his eyebrows. Damn, I knew it was going to come up sooner or later. Let's see how well they believe my lies.

"It was nothing. What is on my laptop is none of your business, so I don't want you to get on it. There's nothing to hide; it's just a matter of privacy." I said as cheerily as I could without being too happy-go-lucky.

The red heads raised their eyebrows and shrugged as they surprisingly accepted my reply. Maybe they understood wanting to have your privacy with belongings. I could feel Mori looking at me with a knowing gaze. I made sure not to look at him to arouse suspicion of the others. Yuri and Saki were looking at me skeptically; they knew I had plenty of things to hide. I discreetly shook my head at them. The last thing I needed was for the twins to know what had happened. They of all people (aside from Tamaki) would just pity me and treat me like I was some sort of invalid. I may be emotionally damaged, but I wasn't in need of being treated differently because of that.

I got up and picked up all the empty pizza boxes. Without my asking, Mori stooped to gather up all the empty coke cans that were scattered on the ground. We walked down the stairs slowly, making sure that none of the others followed us out to the garage. Once out there we disposed of the trash in the garbage can.

I had just barely turned to go back in when Mori caught hold of my hand. I looked up at him in surprise. He looked back down at me with his typical blank expression that betrayed none of his inner thoughts. Not even his dark grey eyes showed what he was thinking. There were no minute details to show any emotion; not even the usual ones that most people missed. I hated how hard it was to read him.

"Why won't you tell them?" He asked.

My breath hitched in my throat in response to his question. He had picked up on my reluctance to talk to any of the others about my past, just like I knew he would. Mori may be silent most of the time, but that didn't mean he was unobservant.

"I don't want them to know." I whispered, not daring to look Mori in the eye. Instead, I stared down at my feet as I spoke. "I don't tell most people about my past; I try not to bring it up in general. I hate it when people look at me like I'm some sort of pity case, like I'm a puppy that got left out on the streets in the rain. They don't need to know, they don't need to worry. I can't have everyone knowing, because then everyone will treat me differently and I don't want that. Kyoya doesn't know what really happened, and I don't want to tell him. It was hard enough telling you what had happened." The last sentence came out as barely a whisper as I felt my pent up anger and depression come loose.

Mori pulled me to his chest like he had early and whispered in my ear, "We all care about you, Kasumii. I don't want to see you get hurt by anyone, not even yourself. If you bottle everything up it will hurt you." He paused and pulled away, looking at me with soft eyes. "So why did you tell me?"

"Because I trust you." I said quietly, matching his gaze with my own. He pulled me back into an embrace, placing his chin on top of my head. I wrapped my arms around his waist (dang this guy is tall) and quietly let my frustration come out in the form of tears. In the back of my mind I felt something crack, something that I had built up for so long and had fought so hard to maintain to protect myself. Somehow Mori had made a crack in the wall I had built around myself. I knew that if things continued on this path then he would completely shatter the wall. But I wasn't sure that I even minded anymore. For once I felt like I could be close to someone.

After a moment I pulled away and wiped my eyes. I smiled up at Mori, whose eyes still held that softness that he didn't show to most people. The only people I had seen him look that softly at were me, Hunny, and occasionally Haruhi (the last one, Hunny explained to me, reminded Mori of a little sister). It made me feel special that he would look at me like that, like I was someone special in his eyes.

"Thank you, Takashi, for being here for me." I said.

His eyes widened ever so slightly at my use of his real name. I nearly giggled as a light blush colored his cheeks, a sight that was rare to see. I thought back to what he had said on the couch after he had woken up. The same could be said for him (haha, the gentle giant is kinda cute when he blushes).

I grabbed his hand and led him back into the main body of the house. I suppose all was well for the time being, seeing as the other five had migrated to the couch in the living room while we were in the garage. Misaki looked at me with a smirk, looking pointedly at mine and Mori's hands. I promptly removed my hand before any of the others noticed (not that I wanted to let go, I liked holding his hand).

"What took you guys so long?" Kaoru inquired when he caught sight of us walking into the room.

"Someone moved the trash cans. We had to move them back or it would drive the cook crazy." I lied easily. Yuri and Saki raised their eyebrows skeptically. We all knew that Izumi put the trashcans in the same place every single time. Oh well, they weren't the ones I was trying to convince. Granted, from the expressions on the other twins' faces they didn't believe me either. Sometimes I hate having smart friends.

"Anyway, what are y'all watching?" I flopped down on the couch as they explained the premise of the show.

"What is going on? And don't say it's nothing." Saki pinned me onto the couch after the guys all left. I could have just flipped her off of me, but I really didn't feel like it right now. These two needed to know what had happened recently.

"I ran into Katashi at the festival." I began, watching the twins' jaws clench at the name. "Earlier today he sent Kyoya the article from when I called off the engagement. Then he called me while I was in my room. He's on my trail." I explained as monotonously as possible. Both of their eyes widened and then narrowed in hatred of the guy that was the cause of all this turmoil.

Yuri growled menacingly. "We need to get rid of him. I will gladly do the honors again. I'm sure he remembers the last time he saw me." Her eyes glinted sadistically. She had bloodlust and it was obvious. I pity the soul that angers her.

"What are you going to do? Have you told Mori? You guys seemed pretty close today." Saki questioned, her usually bright blue eyes turning into ice. Trust Saki to be rational in a serious moment. She and Yuri pretty much switched personalities according to the situation at hand. It was sometimes confusing.

I ran a hand through my hair awkwardly. "Yeah, I told Mori this afternoon when he brought me home. I figured I could get a restraining order. Jail doesn't seem to do much good when there are no witnesses." I chuckled humorously. Due to the lack of witnesses at the time of the incident and Katashi's otherwise good reputation, his sentence had been minimal for abuse. There was no proof of anything else that may have happened while I was unconscious, so he was only charged with domestic abuse. I hadn't thought to get a restraining order at the time due to the fact that he was in jail at the time that I moved to Japan and changed all my contact information.

Saki rolled her eyes as she got off of me. "We all know that that's not going to stop him. He'd still keep tabs on you somehow. I say we get rid of him for good. Maybe set the tigers on him." She grinned maliciously.

I shook my head at that idea. "He knows the tigers and they know him. They won't hurt him." Too bad. I would love for them to sink their teeth into him or maybe claw him to smithereens. If only they attacked on command….

Changing the subject, Saki grinned her Cheshire Cat grin at me. "So Mori does know. How did that go? You two were awfully close, especially when we came in."

I glared at her. "Look, we were watching TV and then fell asleep. I guess he must have moved me to lie down so that I was more comfortable. Nothing more than that. And I can be friends with someone." I said defensively.

Yuri joined in the conversation then. "So you guys were just holding hands and taking forever to throw stuff away because you are just friends?" She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I don't buy it. I think you two were making out in there." She grinned at the thought (oh look, a Team Mori member).

Scoffing, I rolled my eyes. "Think what you want, but that didn't happen. We're not in a relationship, so there was no making out. End of story." I got up and walked upstairs, trying desperately to ignore the laughter erupting from my younger sisters. I pondered over what it would be like if Mori had kissed me, but quickly shook away the thought. If he had wanted to kiss me he would have…or will. Hopefully he would in the near future.

I got to my room and flopped onto the bed just as I heard the familiar _beep beep beep_ of my phone receiving a the sender, I glanced at the little screen and sighed in relief. I picked up the phone and read the text.

**Hey, you okay?**

I smiled at the screen. Mori was looking out for me, making sure I was actually fine after all that had happened. He could see through me better than either of my sisters ever could.

**Not really. Kinda freaked out right now. I sent back.**

**Mori: Do you want to talk about it?**

**Me: Not really. I just want to go to sleep and stop thinking about it.**

**Mori: Okay. Sweet dreams then.**

**Me: Goodnight.**

I looked at the short conversation and smiled wider. No matter what, Mori was looking out for me. I wondered if his intentions were similar to my own when it came to getting close to him. For some reason I focused in on the words "sweet dreams". The only people that ever told me that were people I was close to, people like my family.

Laying down, I looked up at the dark ceiling with a light smile on my face. Things would be different this time. This time I had a knight in shining armor beside me. I wasn't the only wild one this time.

"Wake up, tiger princess. You don't need any beauty sleep." The voice startled me into consciousness. I glared at the speaker with what could only be compared with Kyoya's you-woke-me-up-now-prepare-to-die stare. The maid just looked at me with a bored face as I burrowed under my blankets. I will be the first to say this: mornings are evil. They are the devil's favorite time of the day. I hate them.

Shizuka rolled her eyes at my antics. "Kasumii, you have school today."

I burrowed further into my cocoon of blankets. "I don't want to go to school. I don't want to wake up. I want to sleep and have dreams of dancing bears and painted wings."

The maid rolled her eyes again at me. "You are not Princess Anastasia, you are Kasumii Asahika and it is Friday, which means that you have school. Now get up. There is a young man waiting to take you to school. He says that you left your bike in the parking lot overnight, so he is insisting on wanting to take you to school."

I sprang out of bed then, knowing exactly who the young man that she was talking about was. Leave it to Mori to remember everything and to think of all the solutions. Shizuka chuckled as she left me to get ready on my own, knowing that I would be down soon for breakfast. I was ready faster than I ever had before, changing into my uniform, brushing out and making my curly hair presentable and throwing on some mascara since I had inherited Mom's blonde tipped eyelashes. I'm pretty sure I set a world record for getting ready and looking fabulous in the least amount of time possible.

Grabbing my bag from where it was sitting on my desk chair, I ran out from my room faster than the Flash. Saki and Yuri were already downstairs eating breakfast with tired eyes. They looked up at me with bored expressions as I quickly threw some pop tarts in the toaster and grabbed my share of bacon from the plate on the stove.

"What are you all excited about?" Yuri growled out. None of us liked mornings, least of all her.

"Mori's waiting to bring me to school." I said as I grabbed my breakfast as it popped out of the toaster. I wolfed it down quickly, finishing the meal with a swig of coffee. With a wave to my sisters I darted out of the kitchen and into the foyer where a certain tall, dark, and handsome man was waiting for me.

Grinning up at him, I hefted my bag onto a better position on my shoulder. Mori silently opened the door for me and I stepped out into the cool morning air, relishing the feel of it on my face. I'll admit that morning breezes were the one part of the morning that I liked aside from breakfast. We walked out to where the chauffer was holding open the door of a sleek looking Mercedes Benz. If my brother didn't insist on designing all my vehicles for me I would have been drooling over the black car. It was a work of art (not as wonderful as my motorcycle, but close).

I slid into the car and Mori followed suit. We rode in relative silence, the only sound being the music playing from the speakers. As much as I liked getting to ride to school with Mori, I felt uneasy; almost like I was being watched by an unknown source. But the windows were tinted rather darkly, and there were no video cameras in the car, so it wasn't possible. Putting my nervousness aside, I relaxed into the black leather seat. It was probably just me being paranoid anyway.


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

**Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC**

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_Crash!_The sound startled me, making me jump in my seat. I looked out the windows worriedly, concerned over the noise. Being raised around vehicles, I knew what the sound meant, and I knew that there would likely be casualties or injuries. We were stopped in traffic and there was shouting all around us. I went to open the door of the car, but Mori caught my arm and shook his head.

"It's too dangerous." He said.

"But they need help!" I argued back. "I've been around cars all my life, I know what happens in different crashes, how the angle of the hit will affect both the car and the passengers in each seat, how a person's size will affect their outcome. I know how to help them!"

Still, Mori shook his head. "Something doesn't feel right. It's too dangerous for you to go out there." He said pleadingly.

Looking out the window, I saw the multitude of people who had stopped their vehicles to assist the ones involved in the accident. Through the throng I caught sight of a blue car with black racing stripes on it. It felt like I was in a daze as I analyzed where the car had come from and the answer disturbed me greatly. There was a road turning onto the main road that was a quicker way to get off my road. That was where the blue car had come from. The other car, the silver one, had come from this road. They had obviously crashed when the blue car tried to turn onto the road. I could feel my heart in my throat as things clicked in my mind.

Without thinking of anything I wrenched myself out of Mori's grasp and bolted out of the car, running as fast as possible to get to the accident. I could hear sirens in the distance growing closer, feel people either move to let me through or try to stop me, but none of it registered. All I could see was the arm that was hanging limply from the open door of the blue car, the black hair that could be seen covering the head of the person in the driver's seat. My eyes burned as I got to the car. With trembling fingers I picked up the driver's wrist to check for a pulse. I nearly cried in joy as I felt the faint pulse beneath my fingertips. She was alive. I bolted to the other side of the car and checked the passenger's pulse, finding the same results. Both were unconscious, but they were alive.

The paramedics came up beside me as I knelt beside the blond girl. They pushed me aside and brought her onto a stretcher as another set of men did the same to the driver. I could feel the tears fall down my face as they moved the girls into an ambulance. On impulse I rushed after them, catching hold of one of the men's sleeve.

"What hospital are you going to?" I asked with a hitch in my voice.

He looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "It's just a few blocks away. It's one of the Ootori Group's hospitals. Do you know these two?"

I nodded my head. "They're my sisters."

The man patted my shoulder sympathetically. "We'll take care of them. Don't worry, neither of them seem to have fatal wounds." But they wouldn't know until they did some tests. I knew the drill. Reassure the family and friends until test results come back, and then tell them the bad news. Just keep everyone calm until they knew the details.

Worry pooled in the pit of my stomach as I watched the ambulance drive away. I turned back to go to the car. Mori stood beside the door, his expression betraying the concern that he felt. He reached out to me as I got close, but I shrugged him away, wrapping my arms around myself instead. I got back in the car in silence and Mori slid in beside me, worry and confusion radiating from him.

"We need to go to the closest hospital." I said to the chauffer. I saw him glance at Mori in the rearview mirror for confirmation, to which he nodded.

"It's Misaki and Sayuri." I whispered just loud enough for Mori to hear me. He instantly wrapped an arm around my shoulders. It didn't help though, not this time. My sisters were injured and I was helpless to do anything.

Mori was suddenly talking. I looked up to see that he was on the phone with a grave expression on his face. "Kasumii and I are headed down to the hospital. There's been an accident with the twins…Sayuri and Misaki…No….Let the others know." He hung up and looked down at me sadly.

"The rest of the club is coming. Don't worry; I'm sure they'll all be fine." But his eyes said that he wasn't so sure. I could see that he was just as worried about my sisters as I was.

I stared out the window, thoughts flowing through my mind like a tornado. What if they weren't going to be okay? What if their wounds were fatal? What if only one of them survived? What if…. No. I shook the thoughts away. I couldn't be pessimistic right now. I had to stay strong, I had to be optimistic. Yet that voice in my head continued on, whispering worst case scenarios of what might happen.

We arrived at the hospital soon and the car had barely stopped when I was out the door, rushing up the steps and through the doors. Mori followed behind me a bit slower, though he nearly matched my speed due to his long stride.

"What room are Misaki and Sayuri Asahika in?" I asked in a rush, giving the receptionist barely any time to even greet us. She quickly typed in the names on the database.

"They are both in room 214, but no visitors are allowed in yet. They need to have some tests done before we can allow anyone to visit. You can wait in the lobby area though. I'll let the doctors know that they have visitors." She said apologetically.

I sighed and turned to go to the second floor waiting area. Pushing the buttons on the elevator angrily, I wondered how they had even gotten into an accident. My siblings and I had been driving since we were twelve; none of us could be the cause of an accident. Surely something had gone wrong. It had looked like it was Misaki's fault, but that didn't seem right. I knew her driving style; it was strictly defensive. The only way she could be at fault was if someone suddenly reversed into her. My eyes widened at the thought. It was the only thing that made sense. I hadn't taken a look at the silver car involved in the accident, but I had a suspicion that if I did I would find that it was in reverse. Anger welled up within me. If this was the case, then I would prosecute.

We stepped out of the elevator and took a seat in the hard wooden seats provided for visitors. I frowned at the plain white walls as Mori explained to the receptionist that we were waiting for two patients to be able to receive visitors. He was right; something didn't feel right about this.

It wasn't long before the rest of the host club showed up, all dressed in their uniforms just like Mori and I were. Hunny looked about ready to cry as he hopped onto the bench beside me.

"Is it true? Are Saki-chan and Yuri-chan going to die?" He whimpered with big crocodile tears in his eyes. I glared at Tamaki, knowing exactly where that particular misnomer came from. Stupid Frenchy probably exaggerated the whole story.

Shaking my head, I replied, "I don't think so. They're just really injured right now." The tears didn't stop as Hunny cried at the thought of the twins being injured.

"Why did this happen?" Hikaru exclaimed, his hands balled into fists. His twin was sitting down looking melancholy while he paced the room seeming about ready to punch something. "Why did she let them get in an accident?!"

"Misaki didn't cause it!" I yelled at him. All the movement in the room stopped as all the hosts paused to stare at me (this happens way too often). Taking a deep breath and steeling myself, I spoke in a calmer voice. "My sisters and I have been driving for years; none of us have ever even gotten close to being in an accident. Misaki has some of the quickest reflexes of any driver, meaning that even if she was rear-ended, she wouldn't be the cause of an accident by hitting the person in front of her as well. The only way she could have been in an accident would be if it was the other person's fault and she didn't have time to move away."

No one said anything for a moment, they just stared. I was beginning to question my theory until Kyoya spoke up. "I received the accident report from the police. Misaki's car was hit in the front, while the other car, a rental, was hit on the passenger side back door. All the evidence states that it was Misaki's fault."

"It's not possible!" I stood up angrily. "I've been around cars all my life; I know that Misaki couldn't have been the one at fault. Check what gear the other car is in, that will tell you everything." I glared at him in fury. How dare he say that it was her fault when I knew for a fact that she would have better sense than to hit someone even on accident? My theory had to be right; there was no other logical option.

Haruhi put her hand on my arm. I glared at her. I did not want anyone to touch me right now.

"We're not saying that it was her fault; just that that's what the police report indicates." She said, sounding every bit like the lawyer she wanted to become.

I shook her hand off me. "Well the report is wrong."

I crossed over to the window and looked down at the parking lot below, though I paid no real attention to the sight. My mind was flitting over all the details of the wreckage, how the cars were positioned and the exact ways in which they were damaged. It was a head on collision for Misaki's car, but the other car was hit on the passenger side. The driver of the other car hadn't been brought to the hospital in an ambulance, meaning that he/she was either dead (highly doubted it seeing as there had been no damage to the driver's side of the silver car) or fine enough to have been able to go home/work. Misaki had been turning onto the road judging from the angle of her car and the position of it on the road, so she couldn't have been going too fast; certainly not fast enough to cause that much damage. But if the silver car had been in reverse like I suspected it to be, then there would have been enough time and room for them to back up at such a speed to have hit Saki's car with the back corner of the car and then as Saki stopped, her car would have been able to slide across the side of the silver car with enough force to cause the damage. It was a plausible theory, but I would have to see the wreckage again or talk to my sisters in order to confirm anything.

We waited in silence for who knows how long before they finally admitted us into the room to visit the twins. I was the first one in the room despite being the farthest away.

The twins were set up side by side with a machine between them, beeping punctuating the air. Both were unconscious for the time being, and I could hardly blame them. The doctor explained that Saki had suffered two broken ribs as well as a broken arm from the impact along with numerous bruises. Yuri also had received a broken rib with bruises and a concussion.

I sat in the chair between the two beds, clutching Yuri's hand. It killed me to know that I could do nothing to help my sisters. A wave of guilt crashed over me. I should have asked Mori if they could ride with us as well. Then this whole situation could have been avoided.

A hand rested on my shoulder. I looked up to see Kyoya resting his hand on me with the saddest expression on his face. If it hadn't been such a serious moment I would have teased him about actually showing a genuine emotion. I refrained though, my own sorrow killing all my sarcasm.

"They will be alright. My family's doctors will see to it that they heal quickly." He reassured me. I nodded and went back to staring blankly at my little sister.

"Ngh." I woke up at the slight noise. I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep until the quiet noise pierced the relative quiet, interrupting the continual beeping of the monitor. I sat up immediately, regretting haven fallen asleep in the hospital chair.

Saki was moving in her bed, stirring just the slightest bit. I immediately moved from my seat facing Yuri to stand over the black haired twin's bed. Her eyelids fluttered open slowly, her bright blue eyes staring at the stark white ceiling.

"What happened?" She slurred out, focusing her eyes on me.

"You were in an accident. We're at one of Kyoya's family's hospitals." I explained. I was so relieved that she was finally awake. I had begun to wonder if she ever would (slight exaggeration, but hey, I was worried about my sisters).

Saki tried to sit up with a wince but ended up laying back down. "Oh, I think I remember it sort of." She said, looking up at me. "We were turning onto the main road and then we were hit. Some guy must have forgotten to take his car out of reverse." She mumbled, confirming my suspicion of what had happened.

I patted her hand with a soft smile. "Everything will be fine. The doctors want to run a couple more tests to make sure there's no after affects from the trauma. They mainly want to check on Yuri once she wakes up. So far so good, though."

She smiled at me weakly and laid her head back down on the pillow. "Heh, I guess this ruins our plans for the break." She laughed with sarcastic enthusiasm.

I shook my head at her. "Nope. We're still going. There's plenty you two can do even while you're healing. Besides, I heard that Kaede is planning on dropping by to visit while we're up there." Saki smiled at the mention of our older brother. They had always been closer than she and Yuri were, so knowing that he would be coming to see us lit up her face with happiness.

I left the room to let her rest more, despite the fact that she had been asleep for half the day. I would go home and get things ready for them to come home, since the doctors had said that they would have to wait about a week before they could return to school.

Looking up at the evening sky I was hit by a wave of bitterness. I would get whoever did this to them. I didn't care if it was a true accident, I wanted justice. I knew it couldn't have actually been an accident; there were no driveways were the crash occurred. The silver car had to have been purposefully going in reverse, I was certain of it. But would the police believe me? Probably not.


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

**Disclaimer: Nope, not even in my dreams do I own Host Club**

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The twins were released from the hospital the following day. Yuri had woken up a couple hours after Saki had and both of their tests had gone well – or as well as they could when the patients had been in a car wreck. They returned home, but were not permitted to go anywhere else for the next week. Thankfully, a surprise came soon to relieve them of their boredom as their week of rest came to an end.

"KAEDE!" Saki screamed as our brother walked into the living room a couple Fridays after the twins had been released from the hospital. The only thing that kept her from jumping on him was her broken ribs that caused her pain pretty much any time she moved, let alone jumped.

Kaede chuckled as Saki squirmed in her seat. He put down the bag that he had been carrying onto the table and went to go give our little sister a big, yet gentle, hug.

"How are you doing?" He asked in his naturally soft voice. Unlike Sayuri, who hid her naturally competitive and violent nature behind a sweet and innocent mask, Kaede was the only one of us who was genuinely gentle by nature. He was what one may call a rather feminine guy. Not as feminine as Haruhi's dad, but a rather girly personality. He was shy, sweet, and gentle with everyone and everything. Dad used to say that he had one daughter and three sons, just with the opposite bodies. He was almost right.

While Saki conversed with Kaede, I unloaded the grocery bag that he had brought with him. As expected, he had brought ice cream for all of us; chocolate for Saki, vanilla for Yuri, mint for him, and cookie dough for me. I smirked as I put the pint sized tubs in the freezer. Kaede was predictable in so many ways. As soon as he heard about the twins he had begun packing to stay with us for a few weeks to make sure that they would be okay. I had no doubt that Mom had nearly come with him; the only reason she wasn't here was probably work that wouldn't allow her to take a vacation. Work usually consumed her time as she was in charge of sales while Dad was in charge of manufacturing. They were a team that way, and they expected Kaede and me to take over in the same manner since we were the oldest children.

I sat down on the arm of the couch beside Saki and looked at her with a gentle smile. Only Kaede could make her so happy, though a certain red head came rather close. Speaking of which, the club had been coming over the last couple days after school to check on Saki and Yuri. I checked my phone to see that club had recently let out. I had skipped today in order to greet my brother when he got to the house. I chuckled at the thought of Kaede meeting Hikaru. They probably wouldn't get along too well since they were essentially polar opposites.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang. I jumped up and ran to get it. As usual, I was greeted by five smiling faces and two stoic expressions. I opened the door wide to allow everyone to come in. They filed in and immediately went to their favorite places to sit/stand (you know someone's been at your house enough when they have a favorite spot).

I watched with slight amusement from my spot leaning against the doorframe of the living room as I watched what was sure to be a scene.

Kaede looked up as Hikaru approached him and Saki, curiosity on his face. Hikaru, on the other hand, practically radiated jealousy as Saki was leaning against our brother on the couch.

"Hello. I don't think we've met. I'm Kaede." The older of the two on either side of Saki said, holding out his hand for Hikaru to shake. The red head stiffly returned the formality.

"Hikaru. What are you doing here?" And the winner for the most tact goes to Hikaru Hitachiin.

Kaede looked slightly taken aback at the harsh tone in Hikaru's voice. He looked at me with giant puppy dog eyes, but I just smiled at him. This was amusing for me. Like hell was I going to ruin my fun by helping him. Kaede was a big boy; he could deal with this himself.

"Um, I'm visiting my sisters…" He replied hesitantly. I nearly laughed out loud at the shocked expression on Hikaru's face right before he recovered his composure.

"Oh, well I'm a friend of theirs. Hikaru Hitachiin." He reintroduced himself awkwardly. Kaede smiled slightly and gestured to the seat on the other side of Saki.

"Well then I'm sure that we'll get along as long as you don't do anything to hurt them." He smiled with an undertone of a threat in his voice. I watched a chill run through Hikaru's back as he gingerly sat down beside Saki.

"I take it these guys are the host club that you told me about?" He directed the question at me, already knowing the answer. I had filled Kaede in on what all had happened since the twins and I had transferred to Ouran. He knew full well who every single one of the guys – and Haruhi – was. I had even managed to sneak in some pictures of them to send to him so that he would have a face to put with the names.

I nodded my head at him as I walked over to the other side of the long wrap around couch. I took a seat beside Mori and Yuri. Yuri smiled tiredly at me. I had to stop myself from sympathy wincing every time she smiled. The bruise she had on her cheek was rather dreadful and it made me feel horrible when I stared at it. I turned away from her to focus on Kaede.

"So how is Tokyo?" I inquired.

He ceased his glaring contest with Hikaru to turn to me with a bright smile. "Oh, it's fine. I recently bought a new house just for me. I wish you three were closer though; we all miss you." He replied.

His last words stung. I missed my family too, but I was the one who had insisted on attending Ouran and living in the second house. Ouran was at least safer for me and meant that my past was less likely to come back and bite me (at least that was the idea behind coming here. Katashi at least was unable to step onto school grounds since he had been expelled during his freshman year). Tokyo was also where the Sato's main house was located. I had made it clear that I wanted to be as far away from the entire family as possible. The further the better.

"You'll come with us when we go to the mountains, right?" Yuri asked hopefully. Ugh, the twins had Kaede wrapped around his finger and here I was making small talk. Forget him being the black sheep of the family; that was me.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world." He grinned broadly. I may have said that all three Asahika sisters loved the mountains, but really it was all of us. We were mountain people whereas most people were beach people. Oh well, we could enjoy the wilderness while all the beaches got filled up by tourists.

"It will be quite enjoyable for you to join us. The girls have mentioned that you are a rather skilled snowboarder and a gifted guitarist." Kyoya said in his polite voice.

Kaede smiled at the raven haired boy politely. "Kyoya Ootori, correct?" at Kyoya's nod, he continued. "Though I don't wish to brag about my skills, I must say that if my sisters claim that I have talent then I must agree with them. They are, after all, some of the best judges of character that I have ever met."

I rolled my eyes. My brother adored all of us and would do anything to make us happy, including flattery. Not all that he said was true though. He often told me when we were younger that I was the best dancer he had ever seen. The truth: I fall flat on my face if I'm not ballroom dancing. Even then I step on my partner's feet more often than not. Kaede just had a tendency to say whatever he felt would make us feel happy. I wondered if he did the same with girls that he met…or guys, judging from the look he was giving Kyoya.

Kaede turned to me and the people sitting beside me. "And you two must be Mitskuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka, a.k.a. Hunny and Mori." He gave them a warm smile. "I must say, out of all of the friends that my sisters have made they talk about you two the most, especially Kasu-chan and Yuri-chan." And now, if you look up, you will see my soul floating out of my body. It's going, going, dang it, it came back.

"What did they say about us?" Hunny asked cutely, tilting his head and clutching his pink bunny just like the little kid that he resembled.

My brother tapped his chin in thought. "Oh, just that they enjoy hanging out with you two. Kasu-chan seems especially happy having you two as her friends. Of course, she swore me to secrecy about much that she told me about all of you." He chuckled as I glared daggers at him.

"And you will keep those things secret." I growled out menacingly, causing a chill to go through everyone except for the two seniors. Seriously, I doubted either of them was afraid of anything.

Kaede shrugged nonchalantly after recovering from his full body undulation. "Yes, of course, I did promise that I would. Now, why don't we all go out to get something to eat? I'm sure we can all fit in two limos." He stood and pulled Saki up by her uninjured hand. "My treat."

We followed him out of the house, the twins close to him as if he was a magnet. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It was like they were dependent on him whenever he appeared. Suddenly they were eight years old again and shy. I purposefully took up the end of our procession out of the house, making sure to lock up before we left and forgot to do so. Love my brother as I may, he was forgetful and irrational at times. He would forget his head if it wasn't attached to his neck.

By some stroke of fate (whether good or bad) I ended up in the limo with most of the club. The twins were sitting in the limo with my siblings, leaving me to sit with Tamaki, Kyoya, Haruhi, Hunny, and Mori. As could be expected, Tamaki was invading Haruhi's personal space as she glared daggers at him. Kyoya just sat there typing away on his laptop (where does he even keep that?). Hunny was pouting at not being able to sit with Yuri. Mori, of course, was silent as always. I sat between him and the door, staring out the window as I zoned out Tamaki's and Haruhi's arguing. I had half a mind to hit the blonde idiot on the head to make him shut up. As much as I supported Tamaki's obvious crush on our underclassman, I couldn't stand his constant doting and bursts of excitement. He was too much like Kaede for me to deal with.

"Kasumii, don't you think that Haruhi should change into a dress? We'll even put a wig on her so that no one will recognize her." Tamaki pulled out his puppy dog eyes to stare at me. I looked back at him with a blank face then at Haruhi, who looked absolutely bored with the idea. With a smirk on my face I turned back to the self-proclaimed Host King.

"Absolutely. In fact, we should all change clothes. I'll tell Kaede that we're going to take a pit stop before going to get dinner. We wouldn't want everyone to go in their uniforms. Besides, Saki and Yuri are still wearing their pajamas." I pulled out my phone and texted my brother to go to the nearest clothing store. Take a wild guess whose family owned the boutique that he chose. Yep. The Hitachiin family.

Getting out of the car, I looked at the expensive store with a dull face. Yep, Kaede and Tamaki were cut from the same cloth. Maybe that's why they both gave me headaches when they weren't being serious. I had a hunch that the red head twins were partly at fault for the choice of stores. Regardless, I strode into the shop like I owned the place. Note: if you don't want to be questioned, walk like you own the establishment. Don't look around awkwardly or hesitate. Just exude confidence. No one will question your authority and you can practically get away with anything.

I took Haruhi's arm and dragged her away from Tamaki, who stared after us with a rejected puppy look on his face. Whatever. He would appreciate what I was about to do. I dragged the smaller girl over to where there were several dresses and tossed a light blue one at her. Usually the guys dressed Haruhi in pink, but I had a feeling blue would be a nice change. I pushed her into the changing room with a chuckle as she yelled at me for acting like the twins. Meh, she'll thank me when she gets out. The dress I chose for her was a light sky blue lace with spaghetti straps and a thin brown leather belt to go at her waist. Of course, I had also selected a pair of matching blue lace flats for her to wear on her feet and a set of brown extensions that would match the color of her hair perfectly. I had been to this particular store many times and knew from experience that there was a hair stylist on staff in the back room as well as a couple of make-up artists. I may not be the most girly of girls, but I did like to look pretty and I had learned from Hikaru and Kaoru that all of their mother's specialty boutiques came equipped with stylists ready to work at a moment's notice.

As soon as the younger girl stepped out of the dressing room I swept her over to the back room where the stylists were waiting to take care of her. I handed them the extensions and explained that Haruhi needed to look natural yet feminine (yes, she has a rather feminine face, but with the short hair it was easy to see how she had fooled the entire school about her gender). I left with an evil chuckle as the stylists pounced on the poor girl. By the time they were done no one would recognize that this girl was the same boy that hosted after school.

I walked back into the main body of the store and went straight over to the dresses. I figured if Haruhi was wearing a color not usually associated with her I would too. Picking up a white lace dress with a black lace sash around the waist, I smiled slightly. I turned abruptly on my heel and went to change into it. I knew that the cashiers would ring up the clothes even if you were wearing them, so it didn't hurt when I stepped out of the changing room with it on. The dress hit a little bit above my knees and had straps like Haruhi's dress did. I went over to the accessory section and picked out a pair of black three inch heels adorned with clear stones. I grabbed a matching chocker with a black ribbon and a white rose on the side. I liked to think that I was as pretty as a picture in my black and white attire.

Walking over to the stylists' room, I saw that Saki and Yuri had already arrived to be pampered in their standard colors of pink and sapphire blue. I had bets that they had both had their dresses on order judging from the way they fit so perfectly and reflected themselves.

I sat down in a chair and directed the hair stylist to keep my hair curly, but make it looser, sort of like when girls straighten their hair and then re-curl it to be loose shiny waves (definitely not natural by any stretch of imagination. For those of us with curly hair, we know that natural curls never turn out like that without some serious work. No waking up to perfect hair for us). In no time my hair had that perfect movie star curl to it, tied in a half back with a white ribbon. The make-up artist did my make-up lightly, just enough that you could see the black eyeliner and mascara on my eyes and the red lipstick that she had added to my lips for dramatic effect. I made faces in the mirror as I mock checked myself out. I couldn't wait to see the guy's faces when they saw me.

I stood up and examined the three other girls in the group. Haruhi looked like a little doll with her newly long hair pulled to either side of her face in two low piggy tails. Her eyes were made to look even bigger than usual, which was saying something since her eyes were naturally the size of saucers. Tamaki would have a hard time keeping his hands off her now, granted he didn't have much self-control to begin with. Saki was dressed in a black and blue satin strapless dress that hit above the knees by several inches. She had on tall black heels that made her legs look longer. The cast on her arm stood out like a sore thumb, but she still looked beautiful with her hair pulled back and her bangs pinned to the side with onyx and silver pins. Yuri was as cute as could be as always in a pale pink halter top dress with gold trim and matching gold and pink shoes. Her hair was left down in gentle waves, pinned out of her face with gold and rose quartz pins. They were all adorable. I'd be damned if Kaede didn't get more protective than usual over the twins as they waltzed back out to the main body of the shop. I followed behind to enjoy the looks on all of the guys' faces.

Naturally, Kyoya was the first person to notice us, and even his eyes widened in admiration. Heh, it was about time he showed some emotion. I was beginning to think he was attracted to robots and computers as opposed to people. Kaoru was the next to notice, poking his brother in the arm to focus the older twin's gaze on us – or rather, Misaki. One by one the rest of the guys noticed us with dropped jaws. Ah, I love turning people's heads. It's such a nice feeling. Tamaki nearly fainted seeing the object of his affections step out looking more like a girl than she had in a long time. Nose bleed time for him.

The guys were dressed in slacks, dress shirts, and ties, a couple of them also donning vests. Evidently my hunch that we were going to a nice restaurant was correct, then again, I would expect nothing less from Kaede. He had a flair for fancy things. My eyes raked through the group, taking in all of their appearances. It seemed that black and white was a popular color theme, particularly with the two dark haired boys of the group. Tamaki had on a red tie tied loosely around his neck, Hunny yellow, Kaoru orange, Hikaru blue, and Kaede green. Kaede smiled and gestured grandly to us girls.

"You all look like dolls! Come, let's go. I have a standing reservation at a new five star restaurant. The owner and I are old friends, so he wouldn't mind if I brought this many guests." He exclaimed happily and turned to skip out the doors after paying the cashier for our new outfits.

We rode to the restaurant in the same limos that we had come to the boutique in. It wasn't long before we reached the building and we all piled in the lobby, making the poor hostess nervous with so many attractive guys around. We followed her to one of the more private areas of the restaurant, receiving stares as we passed by tables occupied by sharp dressed individuals. I had no doubt that they were wondering why a group this large consisting of teens was here, considering the majority of the patrons looked to be wealthy men and women.

We were seated at a long table in a private room. On one side sat Kaoru, Hikaru, Saki, Kaede, and Tamaki. On the other side sat Yuri, Hunny, Mori, me, and Haruhi, with Kyoya sitting at the end of the table. We placed our drink orders and the waiter left the room. Immediately the room erupted in noise. The twins were teasing Haruhi about something from the opposite end of the table, Saki and Kaede were discussing his college classes, Tamaki was yelling at the twins to stop harassing Haruhi, and Yuri and Hunny were talking about cake. The only silent ones at the table were me, Mori, and Kyoya and I was quickly getting a migraine from the noise. These people honestly didn't know when to shut up.

The waiter arrived with our drinks none too soon, effectively making everyone go from talking to politely quiet. We said our orders and he left again. As soon as the door shut started talking again, though this time I was drawn into the conversation.

"Kasumii, how are your classes going?" Kaede asked, his chin in his hand.

"Fine. Everything is pretty easy, but that is to be expected." I replied. "I'm especially enjoying my music class."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you not taking a business class? Surely you would need to take one for when you take over the business with me."

I fell silent. The truth is that I didn't want to take over the business once Father retired. It was expected that Kaede and I were to co-own the Asahika Motor Company in a few years once I was out of college. Misaki was much more suited to the job than I was. She would actually enjoy the business world.

"I don't want to take over the business." I said quietly. At this point the rest of the club was listening in on our conversation. Kyoya had even stopped writing in his notebook for a change to listen.

Kaede laughed at my words. "Don't say that! Of course you do. It's what we've always wanted! Ours is one of the most respected vehicle companies in the world, with the best reputation."

I shook my head. "It's what we've been expected to do, but not what I want."

My brother's eyes had become hardened. This was obviously not where he wanted this conversation to go. "You don't have a choice, Kasumii. Father decided that we were to co-own the company, and that's how it will be. Just because you're still upset about Katashi leaving you and our companies being partners does not mean you can just abandon your responsibilities."

I stood up suddenly and slammed my hands down on the table. I had not told Kaede what had happened between my ex-fiancé and me, but he had no right to bring up that bastard. I could feel the waves of anger roll off me as I glared down at my older brother.

"How dare you. You don't even know what happened! You are so absorbed in yourself that you don't even care that I honestly have never wanted to be in charge of the business in the first place. You don't even bother to remember that I broke things off. You think that I am so shallow and weak as to not want to work because of one person, even if he abused me! Maybe if you cared more about other people you would know that I don't want to be the CEO because I have something else in mind for my life and plan on achieving it with or without anyone else's approval." I yelled at him. Everyone stared at me in shock, not expecting my outburst.

I turned and almost ran into the waiter, who had returned to refill everyone's drinks. "Cancel my order. I'm leaving." I told him as I paid him for my drink and his services.

With hurried and angry steps I strode out of the building to where the limos were. I knocked on the window of one, startling the driver. He unlocked the door and I slid in. I instructed him to take me home, saying that the others would be staying longer. I rode in silence, still seething over my brother's words. I already had little patience for him, but he was out of line to assume my motives for not wanting to work with him.

Arriving home, I immediately went to where my tigers were napping in their enclosure. They sat up as I approached, looking happy to see me. I smiled softly at them. At least tigers couldn't talk. I sat with them as they nuzzled me, asking me to pet them.

I ignored my phone as it buzzed with texts, presumably from the club. I knew for a fact that Kaede wouldn't be texting me, seeing as he hated to talk via text. My pets curled around me. Kai licked me, feeling my emotions. These tigers were the only parts of my family that didn't expect something drastic of me. Kyra purred as she leaned her head on my lap and Raiden placed one of his big paws on my knee. They sympathized with me even if no one else did. They hadn't argued when I ranted about how Saki's and Yuri's accident wasn't their fault, when I had come home from the festival and broke down from stress after running into Katashi. No human would ever compare to these three. Not my family, not my friends, not the host club, not even Mori.

As the sun went down I said goodnight to my tigers and went inside. Kaede would be spending the night and I wanted to be nowhere near him. I looked at my phone as I travelled up to my bedroom. As expected, the texts were from the host club asking where I had gone. I rolled my eyes until I came to one message that made me reply.

**Haruhi Fujioka: You can stay at my place for a bit if you need to.**

I hurried up to my room to change out of my dress and into a pair of jeans and a hoodie and packed a backpack for the night. This was exactly what I needed. I replied to her as I ran down to the garage and put on my helmet.

**Be there in a few.**


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

**Disclaimer: Host Club is not mine**

* * *

I knocked on Haruhi's door as soon as the limo that dropped her off was out of sight. I didn't need everyone to know where I was, or that I wasn't at my house. I had no doubt that most of them were worrying about me, judging from the number of unanswered texts they had sent me. As I waited for her to answer the door I looked up at the sky, the dark clouds covering the stars making me nervous. I wanted to get in before the rain suspended above me began to fall.

Haruhi opened the door none too soon and I tumbled inside. She chuckled at me and helped me right myself from where I was slumped on the floor.

"Nice entrance." She remarked and I stuck my tongue out at her. I had managed to somehow shut the door behind me, effectively blocking out the darkening sky.

I slipped off my shoes and placed them neatly by the door beside Haruhi's own. Haruhi gestured for me to follow her into the living room where she had set up a tray of tea on the coffee table. I smiled at her and placed my backpack down by the wall.

"Sorry that it's not as spacious as you're used to." She said as she settled down beside me and picked up her cup of tea. I waved her off nonchalantly. I liked the coziness given by smaller spaces. "My dad's working all night, so it's just us here. I hope you don't mind."

I shook my head with a cheerless smile. "It's fine. I'm not really in the mood to talk to most people anyway." I picked up my tea and took a sip. I could feel the warm liquid working its way to calm my nerves. I would have preferred to be alone tonight, but this was as close as I could get with all three of my siblings at the house. I felt no regret at leaving them to their own devices, despite the twins being injured still. They all would just try to talk to me about what had happened, Kaede and Saki being accusatory and Yuri being sympathetic. Haruhi, on the other hand, would be her normal calm self. Exactly what I needed.

I could hear the rain begin to pelt the roof of the building and the porch outside. It made me antsy to hear the drip drop of the water pellets as they came in contact with the ground. I suggested we turn on the TV to Haruhi, to which she readily agreed, putting on a movie for us to watch. We curled up in blankets on the floor and watched as the infamous Harry Potter battled the basilisk and remarked how there was clearly no hole in the ceiling for Faux to have flown in. All was well until there was a giant crash of thunder and what had been a brightly lit room a moment before became utterly dark and silent as both Haruhi and I cowered under our blankets.

"You…you're scared of thunder too?" I asked Haruhi as she huddled under her covering. She nodded as a flash of lightning lit up the room and we both let out a shriek. I scooted over to my bag and pulled out my IPod. Putting one ear bud in my ear and the other in Haruhi's, I turned on some Icon For Hire, letting the music drown out the storm. Of course it didn't work completely seeing as we both had one ear open to hear the crashing of the thunder. I prayed it would be over soon. As much as I loved being the strong one I hated to admit my fear. Snakes I could handle. Tigers I played with. Heights were exhilarating. But thunder terrified me into being petrified.

Haruhi's phone rang, startling us with the bright light from its screen. As she reached to pick it up I noticed the picture and name associated with the number. Tamaki was calling her. I had no doubt that he knew about her fear of storms.

"He-hello?" Haruhi answered the phone with a whimper as another crash of thunder made her whimper in fear. I could hear Tamaki on the other line of the phone freaking out over our underclassman. "I-I'm fine, Tamaki-sempai….It's fine….you-you don't have to come over….no - EEEECH." She let out a screech as thunder shook the apartment. We clung to each other in fear. Haruhi had evidently hung up the phone during the last crash of thunder, cutting her conversation with Tamaki short.

I tried to keep my fear in check, internalizing it to try to calm the smaller brunette. As terrified as I was I knew she needed to be calmed down more than me. I took out my ear bud and put it in her open ear. She nodded thankfully and curled up even further into my side, reminding me of Yuri when we were little and she had had a nightmare.

She fell asleep like that on the floor, my music blasting in her ears to block out the thunder while I gave a little jump every time it boomed in the sky. I could see my own phone lighting up as someone texted me. With nothing else to do I reached over and picked it up, seeing who the sender was. Saki.

**Saki: Where r u?! Are u okay? I'm sure ur freaking out right now with the storm and all. We're all worried about u. Y did u run away on a night like this? U really are a idiot sometimes. **

I sighed. She could wait until morning before I replied.

The next message was from someone that I didn't expect, yet was quite happy to hear from.

**Mori: Are you okay? Yuri-san told me you are afraid of storms.**

Much to my surprise, I found myself typing a message back to him.

**I'm fine. Scared, but fine. I'm with Haruhi at her house. She's asleep right now. Don't worry about me. I'm used to this sort of thing.**

I was about to delete the message when yet another crash of thunder startled me into pressing the send button. I watched with horror as the message sent. I hadn't actually wanted to send that, to let anyone know where I was or that I was afraid. Yet I had. I waited with baited breath as I waited for his reply.

**Mori: It'll be okay. Just pretend it's drums. I'll be there in the morning. I'll bring breakfast.**

I smiled at my phone. Out of all my friends and family these two (Haruhi and Mori) always made the least of a fuss about things and knew when to let things be. I was happy to know that I had people like them in my life, people that genuinely cared and knew what I needed and wouldn't press my buttons. I needed more people like them in my life.

I quickly shot back a reply.

**Thanks, Mori. See you then. Goodnight.**

* * *

I fell asleep with my phone clutched to my chest and my head resting on Haruhi's (whose head was in turn resting on my shoulder). The thunder had died down as the storm passed us, leaving me to fall asleep to the drip drop of rain.

A knock on the door jolted me awake. I stared groggily at the unfamiliar door for a minute before memories of last night came back to me. Haruhi stirred on my shoulder as the knocking continued. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. I rolled my shoulders, wincing at the pain that came from a bad sleep position. More knocks at the door caused me to stand up and look out the peep hole. There stood my two favorite seniors, a box held in Mori's hands and Usa-chan in Hunny's. I looked at the clock on the stove. It was five past nine, about an hour past the homeroom bell.

I threw open the door with urgency. "Haruhi, we're late for school!" I rushed past the groggy girl to get to my backpack, where I had forgotten to pack my uniform. I could hear Hunny giggling from the kitchen where he and Mori were standing.

"There's no school, Kasu-chan! It's the first day of break!" He giggled happily as he bounded into the living room and plopped down beside the coffee table. "Takashi and I brought doughnuts for all of us! I hope you girls are hungry."

Mori placed the white box on the table as Haruhi and I sat down, both still half asleep. He opened the box to reveal the most beautiful sight I had ever seen: doughnuts and sausage rolls. My mouth watered at the sight of them. It occurred to me that I hadn't eaten since lunch the previous day since I had skipped out on dinner.

I immediately reached out for the delicious food, not even bothering to get a plate to put my breakfast on. Hunny giggled at me as I scarfed down the food with a vengeance. Bless the man who invented doughnuts, he was a genius.

"Are you guys packed?" Hunny asked as we slowed down our eating. I looked up at him like a deer in the headlights. I had not been informed of a need to pack anything. I said as much and Hunny tilted his head cutely at me.

"Did you forget that we're going on a trip?" I looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, providing an answer.

Haruhi sighed. "We're going to your resort in the mountains. We talked about it just the other day." She shook her head at my forgetfulness and went to throw away the empty doughnut box. "You might want to pack before the twins get a chance to do it for you. Trust me, you don't want them to pack for you." She gave a little shudder, giving me the impression that they had done such a thing to her before.

I grabbed my backpack with dread settling in my stomach. Packing would mean that I had to go home. Home meant dealing with my siblings. I only hoped that the night had given them time to cool off some, though I doubted Kaede or Saki would be completely over yesterday evening's little fiasco.

I must have missed a conversation between Mori and Hunny because the next thing I knew Mori was laying his hand on my shoulder and directing me towards the door. "Takashi is going to take you home to get packed Kasu-chan. Haru-chan and I will meet up with you at your house with the others." Hunny explained as Mori practically pushed me out of the doorway. I sighed in defeat, knowing that I would get away with nothing with these two.

Mori and I walked down the apartment stairs and across the street where I had put my motorcycle in a parking garage for the night. I pulled out my helmet from my backpack and put it on. I felt bad that I didn't have a spare one for Mori; I didn't usually ride with a tagalong that needed one. I positioned myself on my bike with room behind me for the taller boy to sit. I felt him get on and blushed as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest. Taking a deep breath, I turned on my motorcycle and drove out of the garage and down the street, enjoying the rush of air that hit me as I picked up speed.

The arms around my waist tightened, giving me the impression that Takashi Morinozuka had never ridden a motorcycle, much to my surprise. I would have figured that the "wild" type would have at least ridden one once in his life. A giggle passed through my lips as I imagined his face, startled yet exhilarated at the experience. I maneuvered the bike skillfully, even with the extra weight added on.

All too soon we were driving into the garage at my house. I knew that my siblings would have already been alerted to my arrival by the servant who had opened the gates for us. As I put my helmet on its shelf I sighed. Now was the moment I was dreading. I was going to have to deal with my brother and sisters (though I was really only worried about dealing with Saki out of the two of them).

I felt Mori put his hand on my shoulder, trying to reassure me. I smiled tightly up at him. He knew just how much I wasn't looking forward to this little encounter. Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I opened the door and slipped into the kitchen, Mori tailing behind. The lights flicked on and Saki stared at me from her position leaning against one of the counters. Her eyes flicked between me and Mori suspiciously. Realization of what she probably saw hit me like a tidal wave. Mori was with me, me who was in wrinkled day old clothes and messy hair and probably looked like a total train wreck. A blush crept up my face, which probably did no good in her eyes. I knew already what conclusion Saki had gone to in her mind and I was embarrassed at the thought of it. Damn girl was as perverted as the Hitachiin brothers.

She pushed off the counter and walked past me, patting me on the shoulder as she did so. "Nice one, _tigress_. I must say, I thought you would have made things official before you did anything, but hey, whatever. Kudos to you." She smirked as she left the room. I was left standing there with a deep red blush on my face. Glancing up, I saw a similar blush replacing Mori's usually stoic face.

I hurried up to my room before I ran into anyone else. Of course, Mori followed me like a little puppy. I shut the door to my room and flopped on my bed, slinging my bag halfway across the room as I did so. "Ugh. So not the welcome I was expecting." I groaned. I watched from beneath my eyelids as Mori took a seat in my desk chair and considered the carpet rather intensely.

After a moment I sat back up. "I should probably get to packing." Mori said nothing in reply, but I had also expected that. I got up and moved to my closet, pulling down my big black suitcase from the shelf at the top. I threw clothes into the case without care for whether or not they were folded. Hikaru and Kaoru would have a heart attack if they saw the state of my suitcase. There were jeans mixed with socks, shirts and shoes jumbled together. I could deal with folding the contents later, as long as I got everything in for now.

My silent friend just sat and watched me from his place on my desk chair with a blank expression. At least he didn't have any need to talk about what had happened with Saki in the kitchen. No doubt we were both too mortified to even want to talk about it. Misaki was known for jumping to conclusions, but I hadn't thought she would _jump_ to that one. Of course if I denied it she would say that I was just trying to cover up that it did happen and that I was too embarrassed to say anything about it. Hopefully she would say nothing to Kaede about her little misunderstanding.

As I thought of this I threw in my underwear and bras into my bag, not even looking behind me as I did so. It wasn't until I heard Mori clear his throat and I looked over that I noticed that half of my unmentionables were scattered on the floor around my suitcase. I blushed scarlet and hurried to pick them all up and stuff them in my bag beneath a layer of other clothes so that my senpai couldn't see them (despite the fact that I have some cute bras and panties thank you very much!). I didn't dare look him in the eye as I closed my suitcase, deciding then and there that I had plenty of clothes packed for the trip.

Pulling the suitcase behind me, I left my room with Mori following. I could hear voices from downstairs, signaling the arrival of the rest of the club. Hopefully Saki would have forgotten about the little misunderstanding in the kitchen with the arrival of Hikaru. I stopped for a moment at the top of the stairs to survey everyone. They were all dressed in normal clothes (though no doubt Hitachiin designs. It was practically a rule that we all get clothes from them) and were standing around my living room casually. Haruhi was sitting in one of the cream colored suede chairs with the twins flanking her on either side and Saki sitting on the arm of the chair. Tamaki was talking animatedly with Kaede, a sight that gave me a headache without even hearing their conversation (too many similarities with their personalities). Yuri was playing on the floor with her rabbit, Yuki, along with Hunny, who was entranced by the little white hotot that was hopping between them. Kyoya was, of course, sitting down on one of the couches typing away on his laptop.

With a sigh I started down the stairs, surprised when Mori deftly picked up my suitcase for me. I smiled up at him in thanks, to which he returned one of his rare little smiles. As we descended into the living room Tamaki looked up and called attention to us.

"Kasumii~~ you're safe!" He exclaimed, jumping up and down and wagging his imaginary tail. "Oh, my precious daughter, we were all so worried! When you didn't answer your phone we all thought something terrible had happened to you!" He spun around the room as sparkles rained down on him.

I glared at him with as much of a demon aura as Kyoya had if you woke him up early. "Shut up, Tamaki." I told him, sending the over enthusiastic blonde into his emo corner where he poked at a mushroom, muttering things about how his daughter was being mean to him. I rolled my eyes. If he wanted to play family with the club, then so be it, but I had no patience for his antics today.

"Kasumii, don't take this out on him. We were all worried about you." Kaede spoke up in a calmer tone than usual. I turned my death glare to him.

"What do you care?" I spit out, still angry at my brother from last night.

I felt Mori put a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me back down. Just a few minutes ago I had been completely fine, but seeing my brother had sent me back down the road to hell where my throne sat awaiting my arrival.

Kaede sighed. "I'm your brother, Kasumii. Of course I care." I rolled my eyes at that. I knew him better than that. Kaede would say sweet things to people only if it would benefit him in the long run. He helped people only if it meant he would gain something in return. I was wrong to peg him as Tamaki's unrelated twin: his personality was the love child of Tamaki and Kyoya.

"Well maybe if you cared then you would realize that I don't want to talk to you, I don't even want to see you right now. If you cared you would be able to pick up on these things that are so obvious even a newborn baby can see it." I told him as I decidedly walked up to him. Everyone was silent, just like they always were when someone got mad. I continued on my tirade. "Maybe if you cared then you wouldn't have made that stupid comment about Katashi. Maybe if you cared you would know that I left him because he assaulted me and put me in the freaking hospital. Maybe if you cared you would have protected me instead of defended him. Maybe if you cared you would know that Saki's and Yuri's accident wasn't caused by them, but by the other driver who I had the police track down and it turned out to be a man hired by Katashi. Maybe if you cared you would know that the guy you like so much and wanted to be your brother in law is stalking me and is causing harm to our family. Maybe if you cared then you would actually know about all of this!" I screamed at him.

He stood there staring at me with wide eyes and mouth slightly open. I glanced around to see similar expressions on everyone's faces.

"Kasumii, that's enough." Mori's deep voice broke the silence. I spun around to face him. Of course, there was no emotion on his face to give away his thoughts. With a sigh I walked out of the room.

"Don't even think about coming on vacation with us. I'll have Raiden maul you if you do." I whispered to Kaede.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

**Disclaimer: Still not mine**

* * *

We rode to the airport in silence, all of us still tense from my outburst at Kaede (who thankfully did not join us). Before we left, Misaki and Sayuri had explained to everyone what I had been talking about when I had said all those things about Katashi, causing the entire group to be enraged on my behalf. Kaede had sat in his emo corner sulking. I knew he was feeling guilty about not knowing what had happened, but I was still to mad to care. Upon hearing my tragic tale the twins, Hunny, Tamaki, and Mori all looked ready to kill (despite the fact that Mori already knew). Kyoya kept his face impassive, though mild shock showed through his façade. For once he was even less expressive than Mori. Haruhi sat there in shell shock. I didn't look at anyone.

Now as we arrived at the airport I kept my silence as we got out of the limo. Workers took care of our luggage, loading it onto the plane for us. We walked up the steps leading up into the plane one at a time, taking our seats as we entered the cabin. There were ten seats exactly seeing as it was one of my family's smaller passenger jets. It had a TV facing the seats, which were separated into two rows of five. Each seat could swivel around to face any of the others in the vicinity. I took one in the back so that I could be relatively isolated from the rest of the group. As much as I hated to admit it, I was partly ashamed of my outburst at the house. I knew that I had been the one at fault for everyone finding out what had happened to me back in America, and I could tell from the looks on the club members' faces that they pitied me. Even the heartless Kyoya showed sympathy in his eyes when he looked at me. It made me uncomfortable to have so many people know my story and feel sorry about me for it.

Mori sat in front of me and Yuri beside me. I looked at neither of them, insisting on staring out the window even though we were sitting still. Before long the plane took off. I watched as the ground fell away below us and we rose in altitude until we were in standard commercial airspace. The TV flashed the signal that we were free to move about the cabin. I unbuckled my seat but did not move even as others spun their seats to face each other to carry on quiet conversations. A part of me wanted to talk to someone, but the larger part of my mind told me that they would just direct the topic to one of two uncomfortable topics, so I stayed quiet and pulled out a book to read while we flew through the air. I could feel someone staring at me every now and then, but I ignored the urge to look up at whoever it was that found me so fascinating.

The plane began descending a little over an hour later. We fastened our seatbelts again as the plane lost altitude and the runway came into sight. The landing was smooth, as could be expected from one of my family's aircraft. We exited the plane and were greeted by the lush greenery that covered the Hida Mountains. For the first time since I had gotten home that morning I let a smile grace my lips at the beautiful sight. This vacation was what I needed; a chance to relax away from normality, even if it had a few extra people to go with it.

Hikaru and Kaoru ran ahead of the rest of us as we walked toward the resort that rested beside the runway (both privately owned by my family of course). I could see Haruhi staring open mouthed at it. The building itself didn't resemble a standard mountain resort seeing as most of those were concrete on the outside and had an abundance of windows everywhere. No, the outside of it was covered in oak and had windows at regular intervals. The second floor had an outside walkway all the way around it that was accessible from the ground via a stair case on the side. The back side of the building was a huge floor to ceiling window that had automatic blinds for night. Behind the retreat was a large hot spring that was fenced in with a changing house attached to it. There was a traditional garden surrounding the entire thing with paths that led to natural trails in the surrounding forest. I had personally requested this look for the resort when my parents were having it constructed.

There were maids waiting to show us each to our rooms as we approached the front doors. Of course, some people would have to be partnering up with their rooms since we were short by one room. Servants followed us up with our luggage to our respected rooms. I followed to where one of the maids directed my sisters and me to our rooms. Of course we each had our own rooms in the resort decorated for us individually. I opened the door to the cream and black room and instructed the servant carrying my suitcase to put it down by my bed. He nodded and bowed once doing so and left the room respectfully. As soon as the door shut behind him I fell onto the bed with a great big sigh, happy to be alone at last, though I knew it wouldn't last very long with the Host Club being here. I was half expecting someone (namely Hunny) to burst through my door at any minute now.

Right on cue the little blonde boy tumbled into my room with his cousin and my youngest sister following. "Kasu-chan! Do you wanna come to the hot spring with us?" The little senior asked. At least he was acting normal again.

I thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "Sure, but it's not sectioned off, so everyone has to wear bathing suits." I informed him. The Lolita boy nodded his head happily and jumped to give me a giant hug.

"Yay~ This is going to be so much fun, Kasu-chan!" He jumped down and scampered back to Mori, whom he proceeded to climb up like a monkey going up a tree. "Come on, Takashi, let's go get changed." He giggled again as Mori turned around and headed back to their rooms.

Yuri came over and sat beside me as I flopped back down on my bed. "You okay?" She asked in a quiet voice.

I had an arm laid across my face so she couldn't see my eye roll. "Yeah, just fine." I replied sarcastically.

She touched my shoulder. I could practically see the raised eyebrow without even looking at her. "No, you're not. You're upset. Talk to me."

With a sigh I sat up and looked at her. She was right, as always. "I shouldn't have yelled at him like that. At least, not in front of everyone. I didn't want everyone to know what had happened. I didn't want everyone to know about Katashi. Now they all pity me and think that I'm some poor damsel in distress with emotional damage due to what some asshole did to me." My voice had risen in both volume and pitch.

"You already told Mori, didn't you?"

I nodded my head. "He was there when Katashi showed up at the festival; I had to tell him. He out of everyone wouldn't tell a soul." I explained to her.

Yuri shook her head, a small smile touching her lips. "You told him because you wanted him to know. You needed to tell someone and you trust him more than any of the others, even more than you trust Kaede. You said it yourself that day that we found you two asleep on the couch that you like him."

I stared at my sister. Somehow she had figured out what I myself wasn't sure of myself. I knew that I liked Mori, but I had not realized that the reason I had told him about that part of my past was because I liked him. Shaking my head clear of random thoughts, I pushed Sayuri lightly.

"Don't tell anyone." She nodded with a little giggle. "Anyway, you should go get ready. Hunny is probably waiting for you." I waggled my eyebrows at her teasingly. She blushed and pushed me back, wincing slightly as the action joggled her still injured ribs. She hopped up from the bed and strode out of the room.

Rolling my eyes, I leaned over and unzipped my suitcase, suddenly regretting my sporadic packing. It took me a minute or two before locating my plain black bikini in the mess of clothes. Note to self: sort out clothes as soon as possible. I changed into the two piece quickly, then grabbed a white plush robe to throw over it. I padded down the hall quietly, then down the stairs. Hearing no voices, I figured most of the club was probably already out at the hot spring.

Stepping out into the cool mountain air, I smiled lightly as the sounds of my friends talking just on the other side of the privacy fence reached my ears. I hurried through the door to the changing house and shrugged off my robe so that I was only in my swim suit. I hoped word had gotten around that I was requiring everyone to be wearing swimsuits to avoid any awkward situations (cough - pervert twins and Tamaki - cough). I peeked out the window gingerly to make sure; thankfully everyone was clothed where it mattered. The three idiots were splashing around and making a mess as usual, Kyoya, Yuri, Saki, Haruhi, Mori, and Hunny were all relaxing off to the side, Saki with her cast out of the water so as to not get it wet.

I pushed open the door and stepped out into view. Quickly, I slipped into the warm water and swam/walked over to the edge where the calmer ones were.

"Hey, Kasu, why don't you come over here and join us?" Hikaru called with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, we can make it a game to see which one of us can -" Kaoru was cut off by a screeching Tamaki.

"You devil twins! Keep your dirty hands away from my daughters!" He yelled as he began to chase them around the spring. I sighed. Even when we were supposed to be relaxing those three were causing chaos.

I settled on the stone shelf that had been carved into the side of the spring beside Mori. I closed my eyes half way, just enough so that I could still see but it was hard for someone else to know where I was looking. I've said it before when we did the heaven cosplay and I'll say it again: Mori looks great shirtless. I tried to keep a blush from showing on my cheeks as Sayuri's words rung in my mind about me liking the tall senior. My thoughts began to wander to the numerous times he and I had shared a moment, all the times he had been there for me when I needed someone. Come to think of it, since I had come to Ouran he had been with me pretty much every time I had been in need. Even last night during the storm he had made sure to check on me without even knowing about my fear.

"Are you alright?" The baritone voice caught me by surprise and drew me out of my thoughts. I nodded and looked up at the speaker.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

He pointed at my face and I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Your face is red."

I realized then that any attempt at hiding a blush had failed miserably. "Oh, it's okay. The water is just warm and it's making me warm, hehe." I covered up lamely.

Mori nodded and went back to staring straight ahead at nothing, though I knew he didn't believe me. He may be silent most of the time, but I knew for a fact that he was more aware of everything than he let on. Mori just knew when it was necessary to speak and when not to, meaning that he pretended to accept people's explanations even if they are lies because he knows the truth.

I leaned back and watched a fluffy white cloud roll by overhead then hiding behind the peak of a mountain. I vaguely was aware of someone coming close to me until I felt strong hands on my waist and felt myself being lifted into the air and then swished through the water. I heard one of the twins laughing beside me (Hikaru I'm guessing; their voices were different but their laughs were the same). Without thinking I spun around and pushed off his chest with my hands, but the evil ginger just held on tighter as he played some sort of keep away game with his brother and Tamaki with me being the keep away object. I was dragged through the water against my will before a different, larger, pair of hands grabbed onto my waist and pulled me up out of the water and out of my previous captor's grip. Hikaru glared my new captor/rescuer in a displeased way, not a competitive one, meaning that it was not one of his little playmates that had wrested me from his grip.

"No fair! We were playing with her!" Hikaru and Kaoru whined in synch. I rolled my eyes.

My hero stayed silent and lowered me a bit before bringing me back to the edge of the hot spring to sit on the shelf and go back to relaxing. He placed me gently on the underwater bench and smiled softly at me, which caused me to blush yet again (ugh so much blushing, what was happening to me). I mumbled a thanks and Mori ruffled my hair lightly before going back to his perch beside me.

From a few seats away Yuri and Saki caught my eye and both gave a conspiratorial wink. They looked like they had a plan that I wanted no part of. At least they had forgiven me for my earlier outburst and had gone back to normal. Heck, maybe Yuri was going to show her true nature to the host club while we were here, it's been long enough. Then again, maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing for me because then there would be two sets of devil twins to deal with when I usually only have to deal with one set at a time. T_T

We all went back inside after a while, several people complaining of this rare thing called hunger. We went back inside and got ready for lunch, all of us showering and getting dressed. I stepped out of my room clothed in a pair of khaki colored cargo pants and a black tank top. In the hallway I ran into the shadow king, who looked over me like a snake does his prey.

"I must say, Kasumii, the resort is rather nice. It was very kind of you to offer to let us stay here for the week." He said. I raised an eyebrow, skeptical of what was behind the compliment. Kyoya was not one to say something without having an ulterior motive.

"Of course, I would like to discuss some things with you before we leave. Your brother made it rather clear to all of us that he and your parents disapprove of yours and Misaki's activities in the club. It seems they are of the opinion that the club is detrimental to your reputations. Of course, I have assured Kaede that you are participating out of your own free will and do not do anything that would cause your reputations to be harmed." He said. My stomach dropped as he spoke. There it was, the real reason he was talking to me.

I waved my hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter what they think. Look at all of you guys; host club members with fantastic reputations. Kaede doesn't know what he is talking about." I stated as I walked down the stairs. "Besides, I honestly don't care what he thinks of my activities." I could hear Kyoya sigh as he walked behind me, but he didn't argue. It would be a pointless waste of breath to event try to make me change my mind or to see my brother's point of view.

The smell of steak wafted past me as I neared the dining room where much of the club was already seated and the staff was laying out food. I took a seat beside Haruhi, wary of at least five of the others as they smirked in my direction. A plate was placed in front of me with a large steak ready for my consumption. We ate in relative silence as everyone enjoyed their meal. Afterwards we convened in the game lounge and watched as Saki beat everyone one handed at various video games.

* * *

The next morning I awoke to four figures bouncing on my bed excitedly. They kept chanting for me to wake up. I glared from where my head barely peeked out from under my covers.

"What the hell are you doing?" I growled, which caused all four boys to hurriedly hop off my bed and hide behind Mori, the only calm one in the room.

"Well, uh, we wanted to go hiking today…" Tamaki said as he nervously poked his fingers together.

I glared at him some more before looking at my clock. "You woke me up at freaking seven in the morning so I could take you hiking?" I could practically see the demon aura surround me and all the guys shrunk back in fear. "Get out of my room now."

They scampered away quickly and shut the door loudly behind them. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I absolutely hated mornings, but I had doubts that I would be able to get back to sleep after being so rudely awakened. Obviously no one had bothered to warn them about my morning hatred.

With resignation I slid out of my bed and shuffled over to my dresser that now held all of my clothes that had been so poorly packed. Selecting a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a sage green half sleeved shirt, I changed out of my pajamas and into the surprisingly comfortable ensemble. I laced up a pair of brown hiking boots and threw on the matching leather jacket along with the tiger necklace I had gotten at the festival. Braiding my hair to the side, I determined that I at least looked presentable for the day.

I threw open the door and the host club (minus Haruhi, Kyoya, Saki, and Yuri) grinned up at me sheepishly. I was suddenly jealous that they had let the other four sleep in and skip out on our little excursion (though I had no doubt that they were terrified of waking Kyoya. Legend has it he is even worse to wake up than me or possibly even Hunny).

"Are we going or what?" I asked the boys. The four excitable boys jumped up and yelled hurray in response. I shook my head. What had I just gotten myself into?

We took a trail that began near the building, following it through less dense parts of the forest. Originally it had been a deer trail, but after years of human use via me and my sisters, it had become wide enough and visible enough in most places for the six of us to easily navigate it. Of course, Tamaki and the twins kept running ahead of us and scaring all the wildlife away from the trail so that not even a squirrel could be seen. I tried to keep my glaring at them to a minimum, but they were causing such a ruckus that what was usually a relaxing and fun activity for me became the cause of a headache. I threatened them several times to throw them up into a tree and let the animals eat them. Of course, there were very few natural predators in this part of Japan, though perhaps the bears might find the three idiots interesting enough.

The sun rose higher and higher into the sky and we stopped just long enough to get a quick lunch from what we had had packed in our back packs. I had insisted that we each bring a bag with extra food just in case something went wrong, to which Tamaki had gone all dramatic about how we could get lost for years on the mountain and how bears could attack and yada yada yada. The rest of us had pretty much ignored him, but we did manage to make some pretty good sandwiches to take with us. We ate them and then were back on the trail, traveling deeper into the forest and higher up the mountain. Around mid afternoon I told the boys that we had to go back to the resort if we didn't want to be outside during the night.

Grudgingly we went back the way we came, the twins and Tamaki causing just as much of a fuss as before. Hunny had come down off Mori's shoulders and was skipping along the path happily. We were about halfway back when I felt my foot slip off the side of the trail. Here the trail was close to a ledge that had a steep drop before it leveled out several feet below. I must have walked too close to the side and stepped on a slick stone because the next thing I knew I was sliding down the side of the mountain on my side, a scream ripping from my throat. I heard the guys cry out my name as I landed hard on the ground below. There was a thud beside me as Mori landed a few seconds after me.

"Kasumii! We'll all come down to rescue you!" Tamaki yelled as he was about to slide down too.

I shook my head. "Don't do it! You guys go back to the resort! We'll meet you there! Don't worry, I'll be fine." I shouted up at them. The four boys looked back and forth at each other worriedly before hesitatingly nodding.

"Take care of her, Takashi!" Hunny yelled as he and the other three went back on the trail. Soon they were out of sight and it was just me and Mori on the forest floor.

I hurried over to my silent friend, wincing as I did so. Nothing was broken or seriously injured, but I knew that I was going to have large bruises all over me as well as scratches where rocks and twigs had cut through my skin.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I helped Mori to his feet. He nodded, but I could see similar scratches and bruises forming on his exposed arms and hands. I tutted and took off my back pack, rummaging through it for the first aid kit. Once finding it, I took out the alcohol, some cotton swabs, and some bandages and forced Mori to sit down and let me clean his cuts. He did so surprisingly willingly and I got to work washing out the cuts of dirt and rocks. One particular gash on his upper arm looked particularly bad and I apologized as the alcohol stung him and he let out a hiss. I quickly bandaged all of the injuries, thankful that none of them were too serious. Mori was silent as I tended to him, but I could feel his eyes on me the whole time, never leaving me for even a moment. When I was done I got ready to put away the first aid supplies, but his hand caught my wrist.

"Your turn," He said, referring to my own wounds.

I sighed and handed him the medical supplies, taking my seat on the same rock that he had just been sitting on. I didn't dare look at him as he carefully examined my arms (I had taken my jacket off about halfway through the hike and stuffed it in my back pack, leaving my forearms exposed) and my cheek where a branch must of scratched the skin. Mori gently swiped a cotton ball across the scratches on my arm and cheek, his touch ever so soft. For a moment I was embarrassed that he had to be the one that came down and was now fixing up my wounds, but at the same time I was glad it was him out of all the others, even if him touching me so gently caused me to blush. He quickly bandaged up my arm and put a Band-Aid on my cheek to cover the scratch there. I was surprised to find that the alcohol hadn't hurt nearly as much as I had thought it would, though it may have just been because my mind was elsewhere.

Mori put the supplies away and placed the kit back in my backpack before handing the bag to me. I shrugged it onto my shoulders and smiled up at him in thanks. We began our trek down the mountain, but I could tell that we wouldn't make it back before nightfall. The sun was already becoming increasingly low in the sky as we tried to navigate through the denser trees. I could hear animal noises in the trees. As the light began to fade I got nervous. We were lost, that much I knew, but what I didn't know was which direction the resort was in. We hadn't bothered to bring a compass since I knew the trail by heart, but now I was desperately wishing we had one.

The sun went down and we were left to travel by flashlight. I had become tired and I could tell Mori was getting there too. I stumbled often in the darkness, though Mori managed to catch me each time. He smiled down at me every time, and I could see that he was getting sleepy.

"We should stop for the night." He said as we entered a clearing. I nodded, all too happy to do so. As Mori unzipped his backpack I remembered that Tamaki had insisted that we bring tents just in case we didn't get back before nightfall. I could see the case attached to the bottom of Mori's backpack, but he didn't seem to remember it.

I walked over to him and pulled the tent out of its bag and began to assemble it. Mori watched before hopping in to help. Soon the little two person tent was up and functional. We crawled inside and placed our backpacks on the ground. I pulled off my jacket and wadded it up on the ground to use as a pillow. I laid down with my back to Mori, sleep already lulling me into its welcoming arms. That was when I felt a strong arm wrap around my waist and pull me close until my back was flush against Mori's chest.

"Mori, what are you doing?" I asked nervously.

"You're warm." He said as he snuggled his face into my hair. I remembered the other time we had fallen asleep together. He had done the same thing then as he was doing now, holding onto me like I was a teddy bear.

"Um, Mori…"

He shook his head. "Please, Kasu…I like it." I was glad he couldn't see my face because my eyes had grown impossibly large in the darkness. This was the first time he had used my nickname. Not Kasumii; Kasu. I liked the way he said it, maybe even more than I liked how he said my real name. After a moment I nodded, though I could tell from his deeper breathing that he was already asleep. I tried to relax, though my nerves were still sky high. Thankfully, exhaustion won out and I fell asleep.


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

**Disclaimer: Once again, not mine. If it was I wouldn't be writing fanfiction**

* * *

I awoke to the sounds of birds singing outside the tent. I sighed peacefully at the pretty sound and began to sit up. As I attempted to sit up, I found myself unable to do so as I realized that I was being used as a human teddy bear. With a start I found myself lying mostly on top of Mori, having apparently used his chest as a pillow during the night. A blush rose up on my cheeks as I took full note of our position, seeing as I was pressed firmly against the taller boy torso-to-torso, my legs the only things not touching him (for the most part), his arms holding me tightly to his body with one hand resting on my waist and the other one on my hip. Flashbacks from when we fell asleep on the couch together sprang up in my mind, causing me to blush even more than before. At least there was no one to tease me this time.

Wiggling as inconspicuously as possible, I attempted to escape Mori's embrace and not wake him as I did so. Surely he was in a deep enough sleep that he wouldn't notice my movements. Wrong. As soon as I began to wriggle out of his grasp his eyes fluttered open and I found myself being held even tighter. He smiled at me groggily and moved the hand that had been resting on my hip to push back my bangs.

"Kasumii…" He whispered. I was frozen in place, unable to bring myself to move. Somehow the atmosphere in the tent had changed to one that was both familiar and foreign to me. Mori was smiling at me softly, though I knew that this was all caused by the residual sleepiness that one has after just waking up. I suddenly felt the urge to flee as the hand that had moved my hair came to rest on my cheek. I knew what was coming, I knew why it was happening, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to move.

Without warning, Mori pressed his lips to mine with the passion of a soldier returning from war. My mind went into overdrive. This was Mori, the strong and silent type, the wild type, the guy that I had had a crush on pretty much since I came to Ouran Academy. This was the guy that had comforted me when I needed it and the one person I felt safest with. Yet unwanted memories of the night Katashi attacked me sprang forth into my mind. He too had kissed me with no warning and no consent on my part with the same intensity. He had pushed me onto that bed and beat me when I tried to stop him. I felt a sudden onslaught of fear as those memories took over and my mind struggled to separate what was happening now with Mori from what had happened to me that night. Without thinking I raised my hand and did exactly what I had done to Katashi that night.

_Slap!_ My hand came in contact with Mori's cheek and he let go of me. I stared at him with wide eyes as I rolled to the other side of the tent. I watched as Mori's eyes grew wide with shock and he pressed a hand to his cheek. Tears threatened to overflow as I realized what I had done. How could I have been so stupid to have let my memories overtake me? How could I have hit the person who had been there for me when I needed him and never asked for anything in return?

My hand caught hold of the tent zipper and I quickly opened the door flap and bolted out of the confining space. Outside, the trees provided places for me to hide, though I didn't know if I was trying to hide from Mori or myself. I sunk down to the ground and pulled my knees into my chest. I should have known that the incident had caused some sort of damage to me. I should have known that I was messed up from what had happened. My chest hurt with the emotions building up inside. Why couldn't I have just been left with physical scars? Why did it have to be psychological too? Realization washed over me and caused me to let a tear slip down my cheek. Katashi had won that night. He had broken me, just like he always wanted. I had always been the feral one, the one that didn't let things get to her. But he had managed to break me and now it was affecting those closest to me. I couldn't even be kissed by the one person that I had ever actually wanted to kiss without being haunted by him.

I heard movement from our little campsite. Peering around my tree I found that Mori had taken our backpacks out of the tent and was currently dismantling the little shelter. His cheek was red from where I had slapped him, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling. He had gone back to his stoic self, refusing to let the world see through his mask. I envied him. How I wished that I could pretend that I was alright, that I was just as strong as before. But recent events had proven that I wasn't the tigress I once was. I was a weak little kitten that lashed out when something bothered her. I wished I could be like him and put on a mask that kept everyone from seeing my emotions, but instead I wore them on my sleeve for all to see.

Calming my nerves and wiping my eyes, I decided that I may as well go back and help him finish getting the tent put away. But as I stepped out from behind my tree I found that Mori had already put the tent in its bag and was taking out a couple of energy bars from his back pack. Silently, I came up and took a couple from my bag, hesitant to make eye contact with him. We ate in silence, neither one of us bothering to attempt to make small talk (not that that was unusual for Mori anyway). Once done we shouldered our bags and began walking east. The one small blessing for the morning was that the sun was still low enough in the sky to tell which direction we were headed.

We set off through the woods at a quick march, me in the lead and Mori following right behind. I was thankful that he couldn't see my face seeing as I was sure it was in some unattractive mixture of sadness, self loathing, and embarrassment. For once I was glad that he was silent, giving me the semblance of solitude. I lost track of time and direction as I thought about what had happened in the tent. Maybe if I hadn't hit him he wouldn't remember kissing me since he did so while tired. It didn't matter now anyway, it had already happened and there was no changing it. All I could hope for now was that he didn't think it was because he in particular kissed me. No, chances were that that was exactly what he thought. Who wouldn't? Most girls only slapped a person that kissed her if she didn't like them. It was an obvious rejection. The problem now was that I was too embarrassed to talk to Mori and explain my actions.

I wasn't watching where I was going and before long I felt myself slip on a smooth rock, causing me to pitch forward. Mori's hand suddenly shot out and caught me by the arm, saving me from falling and possibly getting even more injured than I already was. I blushed at the contact as his hand lingered longer than necessary. Out of embarrassment I yanked my arm out of his grasp and mumbled a thank you as I proceeded to walk around the rock that Mori had saved me from. I regretted my harsh action immediately as I realized that it had probably just solidified the idea that I was rejecting him completely.

I decided then that I had to pay more attention to my surroundings. The sun had risen in the sky so that it was almost right above us, meaning that we were going to be unable to tell what direction we were going for a few hours. I sighed. Like this day couldn't get any worse. It didn't help that all the trees looked exactly the same, so there was virtually no help from the landscape in the way of making sure we weren't going in circles. Around noon we stopped and ate another energy bar each. I frowned as I looked at the food. We couldn't stay lost for much longer, or we were going to run out of the snacks. My stomach rumbled in agreement. We should have packed more food and water, seeing as we were each down to our last water bottle. Granted, no one had expected to get lost out here so we hadn't thought about packing extra supplies. We were lucky that Tamaki had insisted on packing tents in case we were out past dark.

We were on our way again, passing through the trees as we followed a deer trail that seemed to be heading in the right direction. I was growing tired of the silence, but knew that it was no use trying to start up a conversation with my silent companion. In fact, he probably didn't even want to talk to me right now. As a result, I kept my mouth shut and kept on walking.

In the middle of the afternoon I saw a sight that nearly caused me to jump up and down in joy. At the end of the deer trail we had been following was the largest clearing on the mountain, a familiar resort set in the middle of it. I grinned widely and bolted forward, leaving the trees behind in a rush to get to the building. I burst through the trees and felt the unfiltered sun beat down on my skin as I stared up at the resort. Finally we were out of the forest that covered the mountainside and back where we had started yesterday morning. I felt Mori's presence behind me as I slowed my pace and walked happily up to the door.

Throwing it open, I was met with the entire club looking glum. Kyoya was the first to notice us as he hung up his phone to greet us. But before he could say anything I was attacked by a small blonde boy.

"Kasu-chan! Takashi! You're okay!" Hunny squealed as big crocodile tears threatened to spill over. I hugged him and nodded.

"It's good to be back." I said before he left me and jumped onto his cousin.

Tamaki was the next to talk, becoming dramatically animated. "Oh, my darling daughter, we thought we would never see you again! We were so worried that you were lost forever in the harsh wilderness that had taken you away from our group! Oh, you must have been so frightened -" he was cut off by a hard hit on the head from Kyoya.

"Yes, we were all worried about both of you. Now I assume you are both hungry. Go get cleaned up and we will have the staff prepare lunch for you." Kyoya said in a businessy tone. I nodded and headed upstairs to my room, thankful to have the alone time.

I showered quickly, relishing in the hot water that washed the dirt and grime from the last day and a half off of me. The water slid over my cuts, making them sting ever so slightly. As much as I loved going hiking and camping I had to admit that nothing feels better than taking a shower afterwards. I got out and dried off, throwing on a pair of jeans and a soft light weight cream colored sweater.

There was a knock on my door and before I could answer Yuri poked her head in. She smiled and came over to sit on my bed as I towel dried my hair.

"Hunny said Mori-sempai was acting strange. Did something happen?" She asked innocently.

I came over and sat beside her on the bed as I continued to rub my damp hair through the towel. "I guess you can say that…" I said. "He sort of kissed me." Yuri grinned broadly and I stopped her before she could say anything. "But I slapped him and I'm pretty sure he thinks I rejected him, but really I only did it because it was a surprise and the last time I was kissed like that it was Katashi and I was having flashbacks and I didn't really think about it before I slapped him and I really regret it, but there's nothing I can do about it now." I said in a hurry.

Yuri looked at me with a sympathetic smile on her face. "Just tell him that. I'm sure he'll understand. He knows what happened, so I'm sure he'd understand if you just told him that."

I shook my head. "I can't talk to him. He probably wants nothing to do with me now." I looked down at the floor as I spoke, not wanting to believe my own words.

"Come on, let's get you some food." She said, effectively changing the subject. I nodded and followed her out of the room.

The rest of the trip was spent at the resort to accommodate my injured sisters. I had barely spoken a single word to Mori since we got back from our little adventure on the mountain side and had managed to avoid him as much as possible. The others had observed the tension between him and me and tried their best to keep us away from each other. So it came as no surprise that when the plane came to get us that Friday Mori and I were seated in opposite corners of the cabin with the entire host club between us.

The plane ride back home seemed to take less time than the ride getting to the resort, though that may have been because I slept through most of it. When we got to the airport I was more than happy to climb into the waiting limo and go home. As the limo pulled into the drive way my phone buzzed with a message. I didn't even bother to check the sender before I looked at the text.

**Welcome back.**


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

**A/N: ****Time lapse between the last chapter and this one is about three weeks (end of November to middle of December).**

**Disclaimer: I don't know how many times I must say that I own nothing**

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I walked into music room 3 just in time for the club meeting. Today was a club development day, so there were no customers to entertain or costumes to put on. Of course, meetings were basically just Tamaki going "do what I say because I am king" and the twins and Saki goofing off, Hunny eating cake, Kyoya actually doing work, Yuri reading, Mori being silent, Haruhi getting dragged into someone's shenanigans, and me being exasperated. As expected, that was exactly what was happening as I walked into the club room.

Tamaki caught sight of me first. "Now that everyone is here we can begin the meeting!" He declared. Everyone stared at him, waiting for the alleged king of the club to continue. "We are going to host a Christmas ball on Friday! The whole school is invited and we will all greet them as the hosts we are. We're even having a live string quartet for the evening. It's so exciting!"

The hosts began to talk about the ball as Tamaki looked self-satisfied. I stood there in shock. Friday was the seventeenth, my seventeenth birthday. I knew everyone well enough to know that they would all be too busy with the ball to even remember my birthday. They'd probably all forgotten already. I sighed and made my way over to the window seat. I supposed it wasn't that big of a shock seeing how many birthdays of mine had been forgotten by most people in the past.

I felt someone's eyes on me and I turned to see who it was. I caught Mori's grey eyes staring at me just before he turned back to give Hunny another piece of cake. That was another thing that had gone horribly wrong. Ever since we got lost in the woods Mori and I had not spoken to each other aside from politeness such as "excuse me" and "sorry". It was tense between us, neither knowing what to say to the other. I hated it. I wanted to go back to how we were before he had kissed me and I slapped him. I wanted to go back to the friendship we had before I screwed everything up.

* * *

Friday came sooner than expected and with it the ball. School was cancelled for the day seeing as it was the start of our winter vacation (somehow we get a bunch of vacations, probably because of the fact that it's a rich kid school). As a host, I was expected to be at the school to help oversee preparations for the ball that evening. I groaned as I threw on my clothes. Misaki and Sayuri had already left for the school, seeing as they wake up much earlier than me.

The ballroom was already in the process of being decorated by the time I got there. Garlands with poinsettias were strung around the balcony and the banisters of the grand stair case, tables were being set up with white and red decorations. In one corner of the room there was a massive Christmas tree getting decorated with gold and red ornaments and ribbons.

I had no idea what I was expected to do here, so I made my way over to one of the walls and leaned against it. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, so I tried my best to stay out of their way. It's not like I really had anything I needed to do. I was just told to show up during the day.

It had been a few hours when I was told to change. The Hitachiin twins had evidently created gowns for my sisters and me and had them waiting for us in the dressing rooms. Looking at mine I sighed. I suppose I could consider it a birthday present, but it wasn't intended as that and I knew it. The dress was floor length with a bustled skirt and a strapless sweet heart neckline to top the bodice of the dress. The whole thing was made of a shimmering gold material with black accents on the bodice. It was lovely. There was a black and gold shawl to go with the ensemble, as well as matching heels. I changed quickly, leaving my hair to cascade down my back.

Leaving the changing room, I crept to the opposite side of the ballroom to where the glass doors allowed access to the gardens. Quietly I slipped out, shutting the door behind me so as to make as little noise as possible. I doubted they would even know I was gone. It wasn't like they remembered anything about me anyway. Not even my birthday.

I walked outside in the chilly late afternoon air alone with my thoughts, heading towards the hedge maze. They truly had forgotten my birthday. A part of me had held onto the hope that maybe just one of them would remember, but the truth was that they had been so absorbed in preparing for this stupid Christmas ball that no one would have remembered even if it was marked on a calendar.

Snow began to fall down lazily. I held out a hand and watched the little white flakes land on my bare hand, melting on impact from my warm skin. This certainly wasn't the first time my birthday had been forgotten by everyone I knew. I scoffed at myself. What did I expect? My own family tended to forget my birthday, so why should I expect my friends to remember? There was no need for me to be so upset about things. This was normal for me. No matter how much I wanted someone to remember I knew they wouldn't.

I sat down at the gazebo positioned in the middle of the maze and laid my arms on the cold stone table and slipped my heels off, but the cold didn't bother me. It wasn't nearly as harmful to me as knowing that no one cared to remember about me.

The crunch of footsteps on gravel sounded behind me. I turned just in time to see a hand with a white rag shoot out and cover my mouth. I struggled against the stronger man (yes, it was a man, as could be told by the forearms holding me against him and the size of the hand holding the rag to my face) and tried not to breath in. Eventually the need for air took over as I failed to escape my captor. The last thought that went through my head before I lost consciousness was, Does this smell like chloroform?

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**Mori POV**

I looked around the ballroom for Kasumii, but she was no where to be seen. Nervously, I looked at the clock. There was only an hour left before the party began. I had intended to make up for my actions on our trip to the mountains by giving her her birthday gift before everyone arrived. We hadn't told her that the ball was for her birthday as well as Christmas. From the look on her face all day she had probably assumed that everyone had forgotten about her.

"Mitskuni," I called to my cousin, who looked at me over his mountain of pre-party sweets. "Where's Kasumii?"

He looked out the window and pointed. "Kasu-chan went to take a walk in the garden. She's probably in the hedge maze."

I nodded appreciatively and took my leave to search for the tall brunette. Knowing her, she had probably ventured to the center of the maze. I set off in that direction as snow began to fall. Hopefully I would find her before too much of the white substance piled up.

Walking through the hedge maze, I heard muffled shouts from the other side of the shrubbery to my right. I quickened my speed and ran through the path, cursing the fact that I had to get through the entire maze before I even caught sight of Kasumii…being carried off over the shoulder of a brutish looking man out to a waiting car.

I ran at full speed to intercept the man, but he hopped into the car with Kasumii before I could get there and sped off away from the school. Immediately, I was getting into my own limo that had been waiting around to deliver Mitskuni's and my suits. I ordered the startled driver to follow the car. I would not lose her. I would save her no matter what.

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**Kasumii POV**

I groaned in pain as I found my way to consciousness. I could feel something, presumably rope, binding my wrists behind the chair that I was propped up in. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting and I surveyed the room. The chair I was sitting on seemed to be the only piece of furniture in the room, though I was not the only person. Two men stood by the only door in the room and seemed to be armed with guns.

As I watched with trepidation, the door swung open and a tall figure ventured in. Fear pooled in my stomach as I recognized the man even in the dim light. I pulled against my bindings, but to no avail. Even the chair had been fastened securely to the floor. Worst birthday ever.

He stopped in front of me and bent down to stare at me face to face. I wanted to flee, to beat him to a pulp, to be anywhere but in this defenseless position. I glared as menacingly as I could, but I knew that it was no use.

"You know, it was awfully hard to get you alone, my little tigress." Katashi purred as he stroked my cheek. I cringed away from his touch, but it only made him smile broader. "So full of spirit even when you can't do anything. Face it, kitten, no one knows where you are. No one even knows you're gone. They all forgot your birthday, so why would they pay attention to where you've gone?"

"You're wrong," I said, despite knowing that he was right. He had me right where he wanted me and there was nothing neither I nor anyone else could do. But I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. I wouldn't back down and I wouldn't let him see me break.

Katashi chuckled and brought his face far too close to mine, whispering in my ear. "There's nothing you can do, tigress. I've waited far too long to get you back and there is no way I will ever let you go again. Not even Morinozuka will take you away from me this time." I jerked as he brought his lips to my neck, but my bindings kept me from going anywhere or stopping him. "Face it, my little princess; you're helpless at my mercy."

He pulled back and ran a hand down my bare arm. My shawl had disappeared at some point, leaving my arms bare. I cringed at his touch, desperate for him to stop. I felt violated, for I knew what was to come. Flashbacks from the night he assaulted me rushed to the forefront of my mind. I was disgusted by this man that I had once been engaged to: enraged by the thought that he would touch me so openly and with his intentions clearly written on his face. I wanted nothing more than for him to leave me alone and to be back at the school. Suddenly my birthday being forgotten didn't seem so bad compared to Katashi's touches.

He pulled away and I breathed a sigh of relief. "I have plenty of time to break you. Why rush? You can't fight back in your present situation, so I will wait until you are a bit more comfortable. We wouldn't want to hurt your pretty little face, now would we?" He grinned slyly as he stroked my cheek and I gulped in fear. I could only imagine what he had in mind for me. "No matter, soon you'll be mine for the rest of our lives. And if you even try to resist I will have all of your little friends and both your sisters in so much pain they will be begging for death." I shuddered. No matter how much I feared what this man would do to me, I feared for my friends more. With me he would have mercy because he wanted me. There would be no mercy for them.

Katashi turned away and walked out the door, pausing to speak to the two men inside for just a moment. I saw them nod before he flung a smugly victorious smile my way and disappeared. At least he was gone. My relief was short lived though as one of the men came over to me. I tensed as he walked behind me, the other one with his gun pointed at me. The first guard untied my hands, much to my surprise. I watched him as he moved back around and pointed towards my feet that were tied to the chair legs. Not letting my gaze waver for a second, I slowly reached down and untied my ankles, keeping my eyes on both guards and – more importantly – the gun pointed at me. Katashi wouldn't let them seriously harm me, but I had no doubt he had no issues with a bullet to one of my limbs. It would be just enough pain to keep me docile, but not serious enough to maim me.

The first guard took me roughly by the arm and dragged me out of the door. In the hallway light I took note of the gun in the other's hand. It was a .22; it looked intimidating, but it wouldn't do too much damage. It was likely that Katashi had instructed him to use such a low caliber gun so as to intimidate me but not permanently harm me should I try anything. That gave me a little bit of hope. We walked down the hall towards another door. Just as we reached the destination I made my move. Yanking my arm, and with it the guard, I pulled the man into my range and used my other hand to grab him by the neck. With a sharp raise of my leg, I pulled his head down and my knee collided with his nose. The gun went off, but the man was in the way between me and the bullets. He cried out in pain as I pushed him away and he hit his head hard against the cinderblock wall.

Now the second guard was aiming at me, but I kept weaving every which way as I ran towards him. With a hard crescent kick I dislodged the gun from his hand and with a series of back kicks, side-kicks, and heel kicks he was down, having taken several of the blows to his head. I landed shakily; glad I had ditched my shoes back in the maze. Two down, unknown number to go, plus the puzzle of the building to figure out.

I heard shouts from the bend in the hall, but I didn't want to find out what they were being caused by. Jumping over the guard I had just downed, I bolted back down the hall and past the room I had just been in. I ran through the maze of hallways, desperate to find a door that looked like it might lead outside, or at the very least a window. I didn't dare open a single door for fear that Katashi would be behind it. I hoped desperately that there would be an EXIT sign above a door to tell me where to go, but none appeared.

Before long I came across two unconscious bodies lying on the floor. The same men I had knocked out. I had gone in a circle without finding a single exit. The only way I hadn't gone was the direction that I had heard the shouts from. I carefully crept that way, trying desperately not to make a sound. I could not afford to be found. Memories of the night Katashi had beat me flashed through my mind. If he found me now I could only assume it would be worse. I peered around the corner and saw a sight that made me far happier than I had felt all day.

An EXIT sign flickered above the door at the end of the hall, giving the dim corridor a reddish cast. No one was in the hall, so I moved swiftly. I was almost at the door when a hand grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into a doorway. I would have shouted, save for my need for silence and the large hand clasped on my mouth.

I bit down on the hand, but it stayed there. I elbowed my captor in the gut, making him let go of my waist, before rolling my arm to hammer-fist punch him in the groin, but he caught my wrist before I could make contact. Surprise flickered on my face for a moment before I brought my other hand flying toward his nose in a palm heel. But once again the man caught my hand just before I came in contact with him. I glared up at him, finding not a guard or Katashi, but Mori.

My eyes must have been as big as saucers when I realized who had pulled me out of the hall. I had to bite my tongue just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Mori was here. He was here even though I thought no one had even noticed I had disappeared. Relief bubbled up in my chest as I realized that I wasn't alone in getting away from Katashi.

Mori let go of my wrists, but kept one of my hands in his. His eyes told me that I needed to stay quiet. "There are more of them outside." He whispered just loud enough for me to hear. I nodded in understanding.

He led the way back into the hall, pulling me along behind by my hand. We were silent as we pressed ourselves against the wall beside the door leading to the outside. Mori nodded to me before opening the door. Peering through to the other side, he tugged me along after a moment, having made sure the coast was clear before going. What I had hoped to be the portal to the outside turned out to be the entrance to a stairwell. We hurried up the steps as quickly and quietly as possible. At the top Mori repeated the same technique to see if it was clear to go. Again, he pulled me through into the ground floor of what appeared to be an abandoned theatre.

We kept to the shadows, him pulling me along behind me. I found myself peering into the darkness of the theatre, the feeling of being watched following me. Of course, it could have been paranoia from the creepy old place, but something told me it wasn't. We were almost out the door when a figure stepped out from one of the seats and grabbed hold of my arm. I screamed and yanked away, but he kept hold. Mori immediately pulled me behind him and broke the other person's hold on me.

"Let her go," He growled to the other man. In the darkness I could see the man smile and his eyes flashed menacingly.

"Takashi Morinozuka, who would have thought," Katashi's voice permeated the air and I shivered in fear. "And here I thought you were avoiding the little tiger. After all, you two haven't spoken since you got back from your little trip. Or did you think I didn't know about that?" He challenged.

Mori nearly growled at the man. "Leave her alone."

Katashi chuckled humorlessly. "Now why would I do that? We both know that Kasumii is a prize few men get the opportunity to have. Why should I leave her alone? So that you can have her?"

Now it was my turn to growl. I was not some sort of trophy. How dare he suggest such a thing? The only thing that kept me from killing him was Mori's firm grip on me keeping me from leaving his protective shield. I don't know why, but I kept my mouth shut. My speaking would only make things worse.

"She is not someone's possession. Let her decide things for herself." Mori defended me.

Katashi sneered at him. "A woman like her is always someone's possession. You don't know her as well as you think you do, Morinozuka. I doubt she even told you all that happened between her and me." He stepped forward and grabbed hold of Mori's shirt. "I doubt you'd even be interested if you knew all of her past."

Mori grabbed Katashi's wrist with his free hand. "I know enough." Was all he said before he effortlessly threw the smaller man away from us.

Swiftly, he dragged me out the door and over to the waiting limo. He opened the door and helped me in, sheltering me as much as he could from the cold winter air. I slumped against the seat as he himself slid in after me. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was nearly ten at night, meaning the party was almost done. I sighed. So much for the gown. We rode in the limo and I watched out the window as trees and buildings passed by in the night, brightened only by the street lamps and the snow on the ground. This had been the worst birthday of my entire life, even worse than the ones that had been completely forgotten.

"Kasumii," Mori spoke my name quietly as we continued our journey back to the school. I turned my head and looked at him, I mean actually looked. He was still dressed in the clothes he had been wearing during preparations; dark jeans, a black long sleeved shirt covered by his dark blue coat, a silver cross necklace, and black boots tucked under his jeans. There were some rips in his coat, showing that he had been in a fight. I thought back to the shouts I had heard when I had knocked the two guards unconscious and realized that it was probably Mori taking care of the rest of the men. His grey eyes searched my face for something as he pulled something out of his pocket.

"I'm sorry for the trip. I didn't mean to…" I cut him off with a shake of my head. I already knew what he had to say and I had already forgiven him for it. I smiled tightly.

"It's alright, Mori. I just hope…" I trailed off. I was still shaken by my brief kidnapping and encounter with Katashi. I didn't want to have to explain that my actions that day had been the result of memories of him. But it needed to be said. "I didn't mean to hit you. It's just that the last time I was kissed by someone…" The look in his eyes told me that he understood and that I needn't say anymore.

"It's fine." He said, causing my eyes to widen. This was the strange but comfortable relationship we had. We need only say one word for the other to understand. We only needed one chance to fix things. We didn't need to explain ourselves with words; we just knew. Somehow I had found this amazing person that simply understood me, no matter how damaged and broken I was behind my mask. Things would take time, but somehow I had managed to get the one person in the world that I didn't need to explain anything to and yet he already knew everything.

Katashi's threat loomed in the back of my mind, but I ignored it for the time being. Perhaps I could protect them all, Mori included. For now I just smiled at my friend as he pressed the wrapped box into my hand.

I looked down at the box covered in wrapping paper and back up at Mori in amazement and surprise. He had remembered. All day I had been thinking that no one remembered my birthday, yet here was Mori handing me a birthday present. I smiled and gently peeled the wrapping away from the small box. With hesitant fingers I opened the lid and gazed in awe at the beautifully carved onyx dragon inside. Tears of happiness and some foreign emotion welled up and I flung my arms around Mori.

He chuckled and returned the hug. He had no idea how much it meant to me that he had gotten me a gift, let alone remembered my birthday. It was more than I could have hoped for.

"Thank you," I whispered as I pulled away.

Mori smiled at me and nodded, brushing a piece of hair away from my face. He gestured out the window and I realized we weren't at the school, but at my house. "Look." On the front porch stood the entire host club simply waiting for us to exit the vehicle. My smile widened. I didn't know if it was because Mori told them I was missing or if it was because they realized it on their own, but either way I was overjoyed to see everyone there, still dressed in their ballroom attire.

We stepped out of the limo and I felt my body stiffen at the sudden cold on my bare feet. Mori must have realized this, because the next thing I knew I was being carried bridal style in his arms up to the steps of my house. The club moved to either side of the walkway as we went up and Saki held the door open for us. Once inside I was set on my feet, though Mori's hand never left my back. We moved over to the living room and sat down on one of the couches before I was bombarded with everyone.

"We were so worried, Kasu-chan!" Hunny yelled as he attached himself to my waist in a hug that I noticed made Yuri's eyes harden a bit before softening out. "Takashi told us you were in trouble, but we didn't know where to go to help. We're so sorry!"

"I'm so sorry we didn't tell you that the ball was for your birthday! Maybe if you knew then you wouldn't have wandered off and those people wouldn't have kidnapped you!" Tamaki and the red headed twins cried out in synch.

"You just can't give us one day without something going wrong, can you?" Saki said, attempting (and failing) to joke about the situation. She received several glares and thus retreated to another couch, crossing her arms and muttering about trying to lighten the mood.

I patted Hunny on the head and he let go of my waist. "Wait…are you saying you guys remembered?" I asked, focusing on the trio's words.

"If you are referring to your birthday, yes," Kyoya stated from his seat on the couch. "The ball itself was supposed to be a surprise party for you as well as a Christmas ball. As it is, we passed it off as the latter and told the guests that you had gotten sick and that Mori had family business to attend to, thus neither of you could attend. Overall it went rather well." His glasses flashed and he smiled. Of course he would bring the subject to business matters and divert the conversation away from being worried about my kidnapping.

Hunny ran across the room and then back to stand in front of me with his hands behind his back. "We were going to celebrate at the party, but since you disappeared we decided to do this now." He pulled his hands in front of him and with them a box wrapped in pink and yellow bunny wrapping paper. "Happy birthday, Kasu-chan!"

I took the box from his hands and stripped it of its wrapping. Opening the box I found a cheesecake inside, one of my favorite desserts. I smiled and thanked him as another package was thrust into my hands by the twins. Opening it, I found a lovely dark blue and silver winter dress with dark blue flats. They explained that this was Hikaru's present to me and that the golden gown I was currently wearing was Kaoru's, though it would need some mending after the evening's events. Kyoya gave me a new laptop, Tamaki a dozen roses, Haruhi a novel, Saki a new set of sai, and Yuri gave me a matching new leather jacket and riding boots. Somehow this day had turned around and simultaneously became the worst and one of the best birthdays of my life.

Looking over at Mori I smiled. Somehow I knew that this part had been his idea, despite us having not spoken since getting lost together. Something changed between us this evening, something good. Things would take time, but maybe, just maybe, things would work out between us. But still, it hurt. Things may have been on their way to being fixed between Mori and me, but I knew they weren't perfect yet. I had been through too much tonight for anything to be perfect anymore.

I couldn't let them know. Seeing everyone laughing with each other and happy made me sure of that. I couldn't show them how scared I truly was. I wouldn't be the cause of anyone's worrying, even if that meant shutting them all out. Not even Mori could know that I was terrified of what was yet to come. I knew Katashi, and he wouldn't back down until he got exactly what he wanted. I had to get through this alone.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

**A/N: Yes, I know most of you are looking for the new chapter. Sadly, it is not this one. I actually added a different chapter two, making all of the chapters after it one chapter ahead of what they previously were. You know what this update means? I AM OFF HIATUS. That's right, I'm back to write more chapters. I will post the next one as soon as I can, but please be patient. My schedule is fairly busy, but I am writing as much as I can. Also, from now on I will respond to reviews via private messaging for those who review with their account. For anons, I will respond at the bottom of the chapters from now on. Speaking of the bottom, I have a few announcements down there after this chapter, so please read them. I love you all for sticking with me after such a long break.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine...**

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_"If you go against me I will have your friends and sisters begging for death." Katashi laughed maniacally at my horror. _

_I was chained in some sort of dungeon, the only other person in the room being him. I tried desperately to move away as he moved his face closer to mine and kissed me full force. I tried to pull away, but found myself unable to move an inch._

_"Look, my little tiger, they are the ones being punished for you running away from me." He gestured over to the side of the room, which was suddenly filled with other people bound to the wall in chains. I cried out seeing the broken forms of my friends, their blood seeping onto the floor. I wasn't even sure if some of them were still alive. Only Mori was conscious. He looked up at me with eyes the color of storm clouds that looked as if all the life had been drained from him._

_"I'm sorry," He whispered hoarsely._

_Katashi laughed and forced my head back to face him. "I warned you not to go against me, princess. Now look what you've done. You are my possession and you will do well to remember it."_

_"You're a monster!" I spat out at him, to which he chuckled darkly._

_"Maybe so, but I have you."_

I sat bolt upright in my bed, shivering and shaking with sweat beading on my forehead and the base of my neck. I had had the same nightmare for the last several days, ever since my disaster of a birthday that resulted in Katashi kidnapping me. My hand fumbled around in the darkness for my lamp in an attempt to drive the darkness out of my room. I found the switch and flicked it on, mildly scared of what I may find in my bedroom. Thankfully all was well and no dark figure awaited me.

Letting out a shaky breath I stood up, detangling myself from the messy sheets that I had managed to get tangled around me during the night. Not a single night had passed that I hadn't suffered from the recurring nightmare. It was like my brain was saying "look at your new biggest fear!" I wrapped myself in a soft blanket and walked over to my laptop, the same one that Kyoya had gotten me for my birthday. It was already three in the morning. I should be asleep. My sisters and I had been up till midnight yesterday with all the Christmas celebrations at various people's houses. Thankfully the club had already celebrated together on Christmas Eve, so that one less party to deal with, but it was still far too many for my liking.

Logging onto the computer, I began searching the internet for anything I could find about Katashi. No, I didn't want anything to do with him, but I needed to know as much as I could since he had decided that he wasn't going to leave me alone. It did occur to me to ask Kyoya what he knew, seeing as he was the keeper of all knowledge, but I didn't want him to know how concerned I was. No one, not even Mori knew about the threat he had given for if I resisted him, which I had. Loathe as I was to admit it, I was terrified of his next move. I had been hurt by him before and I feared what he would do to those closest to me. I would need to speak to Kyoya about security measures for all of us.

I sighed as my attempt at research revealed nothing to me that I didn't already know. It was all general stuff about him being the heir to the Green Energy Auto Parts company and his academic achievements, the public announcement of the annulment of our betrothal, his jail record, stuff that I already knew about. None of it was helpful.

I pushed the computer away and rubbed my eyes. My lack of sleep was beginning to show in the form of dark circles under my eyes, concealed only by makeup to keep people from asking questions. I didn't want to relive that day anymore.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

**A/N: I have decided…..not to change the rating. Although most people who responded said that they would still read it if I did and supported the decision, the comment that it is fine as it is and does not need graphics kind of swayed my decision. For all that were hoping for the change: I'm sorry. I also realized that I don't know how to write anything M rated very well, so the rating shall remain T. **

**There is a time skip between this chapter and the last of about a week (so it's been two weeks since Kasumii's birthday.**

**I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and will review to tell me what you think. I love getting to read y'all's thoughts on the story.**

**Disclaimer: Still not owning anything to do with OHSHC**

* * *

**Mori POV**

Two weeks. It's been two weeks since Kasumii's birthday, since she was abducted. Two weeks since the last time she spoke more than a couple of words at a time to anyone. Two weeks since she last sang.

We've all noticed it, but no one has said a word. Even when everyone got together for Christmas she was silent. It is difficult to see her like this. Kasumii was strong, but seeing her breaking down, even though she tried to hide it, made me feel worse than ever. I blamed myself for what happened, for her kidnapping, for Katashi Sato hurting her like he did. I should have been able to protect her, to stop everything from happening the moment I heard her in trouble. But I couldn't, and now Kasumii was suffering for my shortcomings.

Despite her sudden withdrawal, Kasumii had arrived at the twins' house for New Year's Eve with the rest of the club. I had no doubt that her appearance was only thanks to her sisters forcing her to come. As soon as the trio arrived Mitskuni ran up to meet them, him and Sayuri quickly beginning a conversation, probably about the presents they got for Christmas from their families. Misaki had wandered off to talk to the twins about something or other, leaving Kasumii alone in the entryway.

I watched as she looked around with dull eyes that should have been full of life. She moved over to stand by the window, looking even more melancholy as she stared unblinkingly at the snow falling down outside. It hurt to watch her self-destruct, to watch her pull away from all of us. I knew from Mitskuni's conversations with Sayuri that she had even shut off from her family. She was destroying herself emotionally. She needed help.

A though occurred to me as I watched her. It was something that I should have thought of months ago, the moment we had run into Katashi at the festival. Standing up, I strode over to Kyoya. The Ootori looked up at me in surprise from his notebook. He must have sensed my urgency, because he quickly stood up and motioned me over to the hallway, away from the others. I took one last look at Kasumii before following.

Once in the hall I began speaking. "Can you have your men track down a man by the name of Katashi Sato?"

Kyoya raised his eyebrows. "The same Katashi Sato that was previously engaged to Kasumii?"

I nodded solemnly. "He kidnapped her two weeks ago and has been stalking her since he was released from jail in the US. I need you to have him taken into custody."

Kyoya pushed up his glasses and scribbled a few things into his notebook. "I have had several of my men attempting to track him down, but Sato appears to be rather gifted at hiding himself from law enforcement. I can, however, have guards protecting Kasumii from further harm." He placed a hand on my arm as I just stared ahead blankly. "I am doing everything I can for her, Mori-sempai." He turned away and walked back to where the rest of the club was conversing, leaving me alone in the hall.

* * *

**Kasumii POV**

Everyone seemed so happy. We stepped into the Hitachiin mansion, where the rest of the club had already gathered, and my sisters instantly went their separate ways as the boys called their attention away. I was glad that they were happy, that they could enjoy themselves right now. But it left me feeling even lonelier than before. Everyone had someone to lean on…everyone but me. I had halfway expected Mori to come over to talk to me, but he never did. I didn't know if I had done something to cause him to avoid me or if something else was on his mind, but either way he stayed in his seat, only watching me.

I moved over to stand by the window, watching the snow fall. Each flake was so pure and white. I wanted to feel like that again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mori leave the room with Kyoya. I was curious as to what business they had together – their families were in no way business partners – but left the matter at hand. It was none of my business. So, I just continued to stare out at the snow covered driveway, shutting out the voices of my friends. In my effort to keep them safe from my problems, I had shut them all out of my life, unwilling to share what had happened that night with any of them. I knew that if I were to open up to any of them then all the pain and fear would intensify and they would just be worrying about me for no reason. It wasn't their problem – it was mine.

There was laughter from where the rest of the club was gathered. I looked over to where Saki and the Hitachiin twins were laughing uproariously. They looked so carefree, so blissful. They had nothing to worry about, and I was bound and determined to keep it that way. None of the others had any reason to worry.

But even so, I wanted to talk to someone about it…to Mori specifically. He was the only one that knew most of what had happened that night, the only one that I trusted enough to actually talk to about everything. I knew from the way he looked at me that he was worried, about me or for me I did not know. Sadly, Mori wasn't one for talking, so I did not expect him to just come up and talk to me. At the same time though, I was in no place to go up to him out of the blue and dump my problems onto him. I would leave it up to him then whether or not I would confide in him. I needed to, but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to broach the topic.

I watched as the light fell from the sky, the snow glowing in the growing moonlight. A part of me wanted to go out and admire it, but the part of me scarred by my abduction forbade me from doing so. I had not been outside alone since that night, and, frankly, I was afraid to.

Turning away from the window, I nearly ran face first into a tall figure. Mori. I looked up at him, making the mistake of accidentally making eye contact with him. His eyes searched mine, making me nervous. I could see all of his emotions in the silver of his eyes, something that most people had a tendency to miss. They saw him as emotionless, stoic. The truth was that he kept his feelings in his eyes, which made it all the more hard for me to look at him eye to eye. I could see his concern for me, the sheer amount with which he cared.

I averted my eyes, unable to bring myself to see how much he cared and worried about me. As much as I needed to know that he cared I couldn't seem to bring myself to accept it. Flashbacks continued to go through my mind. _"__And if you even try to resist I will have all of your little friends and both your sisters in so much pain they will be begging for death."_ The words rang through my head like a gunshot. I had to protect them. I had to protect them all. I was about to run away to another room, but I was stopped by Mori placing his hand on my shoulder.

He smiled tightly at me, one of those little smiles that were made of sympathy instead of joy. Except I knew this wasn't sympathy, I could see it in his silvery eyes. This was a gesture to tell me that he was there for me. I smiled back slightly, though it didn't reach my eyes. It was the first semblance of a smile I had let grace my face since my birthday. His hand squeezed my shoulder comfortingly, as if to say that everything would be alright. I wanted nothing more than to fully believe that it would be, that somehow everything would be fixed and I could go back to a normal life.

"Hey, Kasumii," I turned to look at Tamaki as he waved me over. "Come join us. You too, Mori-sempai." He grinned widely at us, not an ounce of worry evident in his expression.

I looked back up at Mori, the concern still in his eyes. He was the only one that knew, the only one that was truly here for me. I needed to protect him, to keep Katashi away from him and everyone else that I cared so much about me. I would finish it, that I was determined to do.

We watched the clock count down to midnight, the TV showing Times Square in New York just for my sisters and me. Each of us had a glass of champagne in our hands in preparation for when the clock hit midnight. The ball on the television dropped and we all cheered, though the others' voices drowned mine out. We clinked our glasses together and drank, a smile on everyone's face. This was what I needed to protect, even if it meant pushing them all away.

* * *

**Mori POV**

I watched Kasumii's face as the clock struck midnight. As we toasted to the New Year I watched as she smiled tightly, resolve in her eyes. I was worried as to what she could have decided, worried as to what she would put herself through to get to her goal. She had already been through so much, I wasn't sure how much more she could take.

"I won't let them get hurt." The words were so quiet I wasn't even sure I heard them. Kasumii hadn't spoken much all night, so hearing her whisper those words was worrisome. What could she mean?

I hung back as she slipped out of the room inconspicuously. The smallest hint of a frown made its way onto my face as I followed silently. I was worried that she would do something drastic. I didn't trust her current state of mind to make good decisions. Who knew what she was planning to do. I wouldn't wait around to see what would happen this time.

Following at a discrete distance, I watched as she slipped out the side door, her violet eyes darting every which way suspiciously. She didn't want to be followed, but she was doing a poor job at keeping it from happening. I darted out the door behind her as she stepped out into the snow, her face tilted heavenward. She looked so serene, so sorrowful in the moonlight. I could see her shivering in the cold air, but she didn't bother to try to make herself warmer.

Despite knowing that she didn't want me there I stepped up behind her and shed my jacket, placing it on her shoulders. She jerked around, startled by my presence. That was when I saw it, the reason she had left.

Tears stained her face, freezing to her cheeks in the cold winter air. Instinctually, I reached out and wiped them away as she stared at me with those piercing violet eyes that showed everything. I recognized the emotions swirling behind her eyes: loneliness, fear, sorrow, anger, determination, things that I myself had often felt. I realized then that her pulling away was her way of keeping everything together, her way to stay strong.

Without a second thought I pulled her close to me, one hand on her waist and wrapped around her back and resting on her shoulder. I felt her stiffen and then relax, her own arms wrapping around my waist as she broke down, gently crying into my chest. At that moment I didn't care about the biting wind or the fact that I was ankle deep in snow. I didn't care about the celebration going on inside with all our friends. All I cared about was the little angel I held in my arms as she let out all the emotions I knew she had hidden away from the rest of the world since that night two weeks ago. All I cared about was making her world right again.

After a minute or two, Kasumii looked up at me with reddened eyes. She was still shivering, despite my jacket and body heat. I smiled down at her and pulled away, but left one hand holding hers as I guided her back inside.

We didn't go back to join everyone else. Instead, I led Kasumii through the halls to one of the sitting rooms. We sat down on one of the plush red couches and I pulled the decorative blanket around her shoulders to help warm her up. She sniffled slightly as she pulled the blanket tighter around herself.

"M-Mori," she sounded weak as she said my name, but it didn't matter. It was the first time she actually spoke to me since the night of her abduction. "I'm sorry to have worried you, Mori."

I shook my head gently. She didn't need to apologize. None of what was happening was her fault.

"Why won't you talk to us?" Her eyes widened and she looked away when I asked the question. I could see the conflicting emotions of wanting to answer and not flit across her face. Finally she made a decision.

"I'm afraid," she whispered softly. I had to lean forward to hear her clearly as she continued. "When Katashi kidnapped me, he threatened all of you if I did anything against him…. So when you rescued me I got scared that he was going to come after you guys to retaliate. I don't want any of you to get hurt because of me….even if that means giving up or pushing everyone away." Another tear fell down as she squeezed her eyes shut. I placed a hand on her cheek and wiped the liquid away with my thumb.

"I will never let him hurt you again." I stared into her eyes as she blushed from the contact. "Kyoya has men searching for him. No one is going to get hurt." Not anyone she cared about, at least. If I had my way, Katashi would pay dearly for all he had done to Kasumii.

Kasumii shook her head and put her hand on mine, pulling it gently down from her cheek. "You don't understand. Katashi will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. He will hire more and more men and hurt everyone I've ever loved just to get to me. He's already gotten out of jail once; who's to say he won't do it again?"

Her lip began to quiver and I had the urge to just hold her until everything got better. I couldn't stand seeing her look so helpless, so defeated and broken. I hated Katashi Sato for making her this way, for breaking such a strong and beautiful girl's spirit.

Before I could say anything to comfort her, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I nearly growled at the device as I pulled it out and looked at the screen.

Kyoya: _There has been a development._

I typed back quickly, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

_What is it?_

Kyoya: _About eighteen years ago Elizabeth Monroe-Asahika was caught in an affair with Senichi Sato. The scandal was quickly covered up by Elizabeth Asahika, so that her family wouldn't find out. It was announced that nothing had resulted from the affair, but I just received the lab results from my family's hospital for the blood found on Kasumii's dress after her kidnapping. They matched both Elizabeth Asahika's DNA that we have on file, as well as Senichi Sato._

My stomach dropped out as I read the message. Kasumii's mother had had an affair eighteen years ago with Katashi's father…her DNA matched both…she was Katashi's half-sister.

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**A/N: It's official, I've gone off the deep end. I have gone into the world of Star Wars, Arrow, and all other worlds where characters are secretly siblings and NONE OF YOU SAW IT COMING MWAHAHAHAHA. I had a hard time coming up with how to present this information, and even thought about putting it off. Some of the ideas included a doctor's appointment scene, one where Kyoya tells Kasumii in private, even one where her mother finds out and gives the information. But I have a tendency to adore shock and awe, so you get to find out this way. Now how much do you hate Katashi? Mwahahaha. Anyway, I will post the next chapter as soon as I finish it. Please review and tell me what you thought about this chapter. Until next time my lovelies.**


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

**A/N: I am terribly sorry for the long wait. I've been busy with school and baby animals and stuff. Updates will be rather sporadic for a while (the characters went on strike -_-). I am still working on the story though, and I would love feedback to help keep this story going. I will be editing some previous chapters and might even add a couple filler chapters in between to break up the drama and to provide more of a time lapse between important chapters. If anyone has suggestions of what to put in those filler chapters I would love the help. **

**I know I confused some of you with how everything was kept secret for so long (ArisuTamaZuki in particular). This chapter should answer some of your questions, and y'all get to see a little bit more of the Asahika family dynamics.**

**As always, read, enjoy, and please review!**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything.**

**Kasumii POV**

My brother. Katashi was my brother. The thought of it made me sick to my stomach. How could my mother not tell me? How could she even think to have me engaged to the son of the man she slept with? How could she make it so that I didn't find out until I happened to read a message from Kyoya over Mori's shoulder?

I sat there in shock as Mori texted back quickly, glancing at me every now and then. I was absolutely disgusted to think that I had been engaged to my _brother_, that my _brother_ wanted me in a way indecent of family to want one another. I almost thought it was better to not have known than to know this little family secret.

"He's my brother…" I whispered the words in shock. Mori looked up at me in alarm. His face alone said that he didn't want me to know. "My brother kidnapped me…assaulted me…tried to make me…"I trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought.

Mori put his hand back on top of mine reassuringly, but it did nothing. I couldn't believe what Kyoya said. I couldn't believe that Katashi Sato was my brother and that Senichi – the man that was supposed to be my father-in-law was my father. My entire life had been a lie. But the biggest betrayal of all was that she had had Katashi and me engaged. What if we had gone through with it? It would be incest, the thought of which absolutely sickened me.

I knew my face had gone blank from shock. I couldn't seem to catch a break lately. Everything kept happening too fast and I was starting to feel like I couldn't keep up anymore. I needed to take control of my life again. Nothing made sense anymore and I was done with it.

I stood up abruptly, Mori quickly following suit. I could see the concern in his eyes, as it had recently become such a common emotion for him when looking at me. I swallowed hard and looked away. I didn't need him for what I was getting ready to do. I didn't need him to question my motives or my actions or even be protective of me.

"Mori…I think I need some time alone…" I glanced up just in time to see his jaw stiffen in stubbornness before he consented with a nod and left the room, presumably to talk to Kyoya. Steeling myself, I picked up my phone and stared at it for a moment before dialing a number I knew by heart.

The other end picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Mother," My voice was sharp, far harsher than I intended it to be.

"Kasumii, is something wrong?" She sounded concerned, unaware of the situation. She sounded like the mother I had always known her to be, which I suppose she still was.

I replied curtly, "A bit actually. I need to talk to you in person. Some things have come up recently that really can't be discussed over the phone."

I could almost hear the worry and confusion in her voice. "Kasumii, if something is wrong you need to tell me."

Shaking my head despite her inability to see me, I replied, "Not over the phone. Can you meet me at the Blue Rose Café tomorrow around noon?" The little café had been a favorite of hers since we had bought the second house for my sisters and me to live in.

"Of course, sweetie," Her voice was laced with motherly concern, which I scoffed at. What kind of concerned mother would have her daughter marry her half-brother?

"Thank you, Mother." I was about to hang up when she said three small words that I had rarely heard her or my "father" say.

"I love you, Kasumii."

I hung up. My parents did not have a sentimental relationship with me. They supplied me with the ability to live comfortably and in return I supplied them with an heir to the business while their son ran the engineering and inventing department. I was their security that the business would stay in the family when they chose to retire, and they made sure I would be capable of doing so. Only the best schooling allowed. Only to find that everything had been a lie. All my life I had thought I was Tadashi Asahika's daughter, the heir to the business. No. I was Senichi Sato's illegitimate child, a stain in the past of him and my mother. I doubted either Senichi or my "father" knew.

I paced the room restlessly, ignoring the sounds from out in the hall as my friends searched for me. Rage was boiling up too fast, its heat consuming me. I was furious with my mother. Not for having me with a man that was not her husband (though the fact did upset me), but for allowing me to be engaged with Katashi. So much could have been avoided if she had stepped in and refused the engagement. All the pain I had suffered at his hand could have been avoided.

Hearing the others calling my name loudly through the house, I sighed and stepped out of the room quietly. I had spent enough time hiding from them. As I rejoined the group I could feel the concern of the others as I walked into the room with what I was sure was a look of murder on my face. I could see the Hitachiin twins whispering to themselves on the other side of the room, glancing quickly towards and away from me. I ignored them, choosing instead to approach Kyoya who was writing in his little notebook.

"I need the proof of relation." I said quietly enough that only he could hear me. He looked up with a blank expression before pushing his glasses a bit further up his nose.

"I will send them to you immediately." He didn't even seem phased at my abruptness of approaching the subject. I assumed Mori told him while I was speaking to my mother. "I presume nothing of this was mentioned before now?"

I nodded my head. "If it is as you said, then my mother kept this a secret from everyone, particularly my family. I don't think Senichi Sato even knows." I looked away with a scowl on my face.

Kyoya shut his notebook and sighed. "Such things are often kept secret in important families. If the press got a hold of this information they would tear you apart."

Rolling my eyes I turned away. Of course Kyoya would be focused more how the Asahikas would be publicly viewed. Our company supplied the Ootori group with ambulances and other transportation. Such a scandal going public would likely force the Ootoris to disassociate with us. It would be detrimental to both companies if the news went to the media.

Yuri approached me quietly. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, though I was anything but okay. Yuri didn't need to know what was going on just yet. "It's just stress. Don't worry."

She wasn't convinced and left with a worried look on her face. At least I could blame everything on my most recent traumatic experience and no one would question it. I had gone through so much in the last year that I was surprised I didn't have PTSD. Of course, none of them really questioned my sullen behavior. They were all more or less aware of what I had been through and were doing what they could to accommodate me (which generally meant leaving me alone for the most part seeing as I wasn't too keen on talking). I could feel their eyes on me though, feel the sympathy in their gazes. I hated the pity.

Even now they discretely watched me with worried eyes. I avoided looking at anyone, instead opting to leave early and go home. I didn't bother saying goodbye, though I knew it was rude not to. I just didn't want to interact with them at the moment. The look on Mori's face alone left me regrettable and feeling guilty as I inconspicuously slipped out the front door. I hated knowing that I worried everyone, but I didn't know what to do about it. To open up would make healing wounds fresh again; to keep people out would be to alienate them. Either way someone got hurt.

The chauffeur was waiting outside for me outside; I had told him when we got there that I may need to leave early. The entire house staff was aware of my situation and they were doing whatever they could to help. I slid into the back seat and instructed him to bring me straight home. I could see his reflection in the rear view mirror. He grimaced slightly at the sight of me all alone. There was pity in his eyes. I looked away, watching the Hitachiin manor disappear as he pulled out of the driveway. It was a quiet ride home, neither the chauffeur nor I speaking. I simply sat and watched the city lights pass by outside, reliving the evening in my head over and over again.

Soon enough we were pulling into the driveway of my home. I nearly jumped out of the moving vehicle in my need to leave and be alone. I hastily walked up the path to the door, unlocking it in record time due to the cold that left me shivering after being outside for mere moments. I must have left my coat at the Hitachiin's residence. I would have to ask either Yuri or Saki to pick it up for me later.

Once inside, I headed straight for my bedroom. It was past two in the morning and I hadn't been getting much sleep as of late due to nightmares. I didn't even bother changing out of my clothes before falling on my bed and into a horror plagued slumber.

* * *

I was waiting in a corner booth of the Blue Rose Café, a coffee and plate of madeleines already in front of me. I wasn't very hungry lately, a fact that worried my sisters greatly. It was already noon, and I was looking around for the semi-familiar form of my mother among the other patrons.

I watched as she walked in through the doorway, dressed for business as per usual. Her chocolate brown hair was pulled back into a bun, showing off the silver earrings dangling from her ears that no doubt matched whatever necklace she wore today. Her dark purple shirt sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, the collar popped to accentuate her neck as her dark grey slacks coupled with black spiked heels made her legs look longer than they were. It was her classic "I'm in charge" look, particularly when coupled with the expression on her face that expressed utter boredom in other people. I could almost see the color drain from people's faces as she passed them on her way to join me. My mother was not the friendliest of people, and only pretended to be when it pleased her. She was cold, calculating, always watching for what made people tick. I wondered vaguely why a woman such as her would have cheated on her husband; what was there to gain from such an act?

She sat down across from me, folding her hands in front of her. She did not speak, expecting me to talk instead. But I didn't say a word either. I merely took out the folder in my bag and slid it over to her in silence. Mother raised an eyebrow inquiringly, but opened the folder none the less. I had printed out the information that Kyoya had sent over for me so that I could speak to her and have solid proof in front of me to back up my accusations. He had sent me the files that showed the DNA match, which had been an accidental discovery as Senichi Sato had gone into one of the Ootori facilities for a blood test, hoping to find a relative who had gone missing and had heard about the John Doe currently in the hospital, but without proof of relation the security had not allowed him to go in. So he had subjected to a DNA test, which the system had pulled up my record when scanning for any matches in the database. The information had yet to be revealed to him, Kyoya having insisted on delaying the release of it.

I watched my mother's face as she read through the files, but it was void of any emotion. Upon finishing reading, she looked up with that ever blank expression of hers.

"You know about the affair."

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist under the table. After everything she had read, after everything that had happened to me, that was all she said. My irritation levels rose. It was a miracle that my face didn't go red right then.

"Yes, _Mother_, I know about the affair. Did you know he was my father?"

She closed the folder and slid it back to me. "Not with any proof. I knew that there was the possibility of it – the timing between that one night and your conception were very near each other – but I did not have you two tested for relation. Tadashi would have known immediately that I had had an affair with Senichi since he monitors all medical dealings that we have both in the company and in the family. I assumed you were Tadashi's though, since you took after me and resemble Kaede so much. When Tadashi and Umeko made the engagement between you and Katashi I didn't dare even try. To do so would be to ruin the connection between our companies. I assumed the two of you would dissolve the arrangement before you married anyway, possibly out of finding love for someone else – you never were fond of Katashi Sato as a child."

"So that's it?" I was seething, the words barely coming out above a whisper. I was livid with my mother at this point. "You engaged me to my half-brother because you assumed we'd end the arrangement anyway, that way no one would ever find out about your little secret? I was beaten by him, taken advantage of by him, kidnapped by him when I left! And you wouldn't keep me from that all because you were afraid of someone finding out about your secret! You nearly had me marry my _brother_, but oh, as long as no one found out that you weren't faithful." I spit the words venomously at her.

My mother sighed and looked away. "I am truly sorry for all that has happened to you, Kasumii. But you must understand. If your father knew that you were not his, or even if you were that I had been with Senichi, he would have left me right then and there. The scandal would have been all over the news with you caught in the middle of it. You would have been publicly mocked from the time you were an infant. I did this to protect you."

I scoffed at her. "You did a horrible job of it. My ex-fiancé, my brother, has caused me more harm in the past year than the media could do in a life time." I stood up and grabbed my bag, aiming to leave. "You just can't have anything be outside your perfect little world, can you?" By this point I was holding back tears. I needed to leave.

As I walked past her, my mother grabbed my arm and looked up at me. For the first time I saw actual emotion in her eyes. "I never meant for you to get hurt. I love you."

"No, you love yourself." With that I pulled my arm away and left, tears beginning to stream down my face.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

**A/N: Okay, so this is just sort of a filler chapter, not a lot of dialouge or important stuff going on. It's just one of those chapters that gives insight into the characters' minds. The next chapter should have a bit more substanance in it. I just felt like the story needed a calm down chapter after that plot twist :p**

**Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story even after the long break between chapters. You guys mean a lot to me.**

**As always, read, enjoy, and review**

**Disclaimer: yeah...if I need a disclaimer then I obviously don't own anything**

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I couldn't go home. That would be the first place Mother would look for me if she tried. No, I needed to go somewhere neither she nor my sisters knew of, somewhere that I wouldn't be found for a few hours. I was just driving around the city right now in an attempt to calm down. Most of the club had stayed the night at the Hitachiin's place; the twins weren't even up by the time I left to meet with Mother. I doubted they would be home now, but I still didn't want to risk running into them. I felt utterly betrayed, the sacrificial lamb all for my mother to keep her dignity. I had been beaten and bruised until both my body and mind were utterly scarred, and for what? Just to stay out of the tabloids as the illegitimate child of Elizabeth Asahika and Senichi Sato, Tadashi Asahika's best friend.

An idea popped into my mind, one that I knew would be safe. Pulling over to a grocery store parking lot, I took out my phone and texted the one person I knew to keep my whereabouts secret. I instantly got a reply and I took off in the opposite direction.

Before long I was in front of a small wooded area surrounded by a chain link fence with surveillance cameras facing everywhere. I drove up to where the voice box was positioned beside the gate, the guard house barely visible behind the tree line. I spoke my name and the door swung open to allow me access to the restricted area. I drove in slowly and parked my bike just behind the guard house. Taking off on foot, I trudged through the woods with only the music coming from my headphones to keep me company.

It was nice to be alone, to not have to keep hiding my thoughts from those around me. I knew it was selfish to continuously lie about things to my friends, but I was unable to bring myself to actually say the words on my mind. Their faces after my kidnapping were ingrained into my skull, reminding me of how much they wanted to help me and how it hurt them for me to keep pushing them away. It was my defense mechanism. I didn't speak. No, I was never one to talk much about my feelings; never was I one of those people who confided too much in other people. Knowledge was power, and power was dangerous. No matter what I did I seemed to be putting myself or someone else in danger these days.

My mind wandered back to the recurring dream I had been having since my birthday. _"__If you even try to resist I will have all of your little friends and both your sisters in so much pain they will be begging for death."_ His words still rung in my ears weeks after the incident, haunting me even in my sleep. Maybe it would be better just to leave them all behind. Even if Katashi knew of our relation I doubted he would stop harassing me. If I knew anything about him it was that he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Maybe if I left them then they wouldn't be pulled into my mess, maybe they would be safe. Even as the thought crossed my mind I dismissed it. Katashi knew I cared for my friends and sisters – no amount of distance would stop him from hurting them to get to me. In fact, the possibility would only increase.

I stepped over a fallen tree, flashbacks to the trip to the mountains going through my mind. I wondered if the others had noticed the white scars on my torso, the ones that made a cross on my side, or even the one that ran from the middle of the right side of my waist all the way to the top of my thighs, maybe even just the little patchy ones that adorned my back. I remembered the pain vividly, the months it took to recover fully from all my injuries. I couldn't stand the thought of anyone else suffering like that.

Stepping out into a small clearing, I looked around and sighed. It was the exact same as I remembered it to be: snow blanketing what I knew to be a soft carpet of grass riddled with tiny stones as it neared the edge of the little pond that sat off to the east of the clearing, a sturdy log to the north that I used to sit on as a child when I visited here with my siblings. In the spring this spot would erupt with wild orchids as white as snow, though often they had tints and patterns of various colors such a purple and yellow. Nostalgic was the only way to describe standing there in the cold winter air, the snowflakes falling lazily from the sky like a ballet in slow motion. How many lies were told to me back then? How many times did I feel like I didn't belong as Kaede and Saki kicked off their shoes to swim in the crystal clear waters while Yuri bent to pick the flowers to bring home to Mother? How could I have been so blind?

I turned away as the rose colored glasses began to slip. It wasn't their fault, yet my anger had begun to transfer to them as well. No, this was Mother's fault. Everything was because of her lies to keep the truth hidden from the world. A simple blood test would have revealed everything!

There was a sound to my left and I spun to face whatever was there, my body sliding into a fighting position that was as natural to me as breathing. I trained my eyes to where the noise had come from, my breathing quieting as all my focus went into finding the source. There. A hand appeared on a tree. My fists clenched, ready to attack. But I needn't worry. The rest of the person appeared and I let out the breath I had been holding as Mori appeared through the trees, his black coat covered in snow he must have knocked loose on his way through the trees.

I relaxed my stance and stood back up, looking at him warily. I had told Kyoya not to tell of my whereabouts, yet here was Mori, whom I highly doubted had been following me all the way here. That left the Ootori to be the culprit of why he was here before me.

Even so, I felt the need to ask, "What are you doing here?"

Mori tucked his hands into his pockets and stared at me straight in the eye, an action that made me fairly uncomfortable at the moment. "I was told you'd be here."

I sighed and looked away. "What do you want, Mori?" If Kyoya had to have sent someone I was at least glad it was Mori. He was the only one that seemed to be able to help me keep my head on right, the only one I was semi-comfortable talking with anymore. He was always there for me, my constant in a world of chaos.

He moved toward me, reaching out for me carefully and slowly, his eyes searching mine as if for permission. I nodded and he drew me into his arms, enveloping me in his warm embrace as I felt myself crack. His fingers ran up and down my back soothingly as I slowly lost myself in his arms. I needed him. I needed someone to hold onto, someone that I could trust with my life even if nothing else made sense.

**Mori POV**

I rushed over to the woods as soon as Kyoya came up to me and told me Kasumii was going there. I knew the place well, despite it belonging to the Ootoris: Kyoya had begun enlisting my help with some of the wildlife there since they were planning on transforming it into a public hiking area (mental health I suppose). I had just been about to go home from the twins' when he pulled me over, telling me that Kasumii had told him she needed to go into the area for a while to cool her head. I had felt a small twinge of jealousy as the knowledge that she had informed him and not me where she was going before I remembered that one of the Ootoris had to give a person clearance before they could enter the area.

I had completely forgone the use of the limo sent to pick up Mitskuni and me, instead choosing to run the distance. Luckily, the woods sat only a couple of blocks away from the Hitachiin's house. I was automatically cleared by the guard and granted access to the property. I didn't know where she may have gone, but I felt the familiar internal compass that I used to find Mitskuni when he got lost and I followed it, nearing the small clearing that the animals often chose to visit for water.

I could see her through the trees, her back to me. My foot slipped on a fallen branch, making it crack beneath my weight. I watched as she spun around and sunk into a fighting stance, her fists raised for a brawl. I almost smiled at the sight. I knew full well how strong she was, and she looked quite beautiful even with her eyes peeled for a fight, defense and anger evident on her face.

Stepping forward through the trees, I extended my hand to grab onto a tree as I slipped slightly on a slick spot of ice. I could see her wariness and finally came out of the trees, my eyes searching her own. Her amethyst eyes were still narrowed despite her having relaxed her stance, but for a different reason. I could see the hurt, the pain that she tried so hard to conceal from everyone. She must have spoken to her mother about her birth father.

"What are you doing here?" her voice was wary, but it trembled with the emotions that she kept holding back, as if last night had made no difference to anything.

"I was told you'd be here."

She sighed and looked away from me. "What do you want, Mori?" My heart dropped a bit at the disappointment in her voice. Hesitantly I reached out for her, searching for permission to touch her. With the state she was in I was unsure of whether or not to pull her to me as I wanted to or to just sit with her. She was so vulnerable, yet tried to be so strong.

Kasumii nodded her head slightly and I took that as permission to wrap my arms around her tightly, pulling her to my chest as if my life depended on it. I felt as she buried her head into my chest, her arms snaking around my waist to return the embrace. I laid my head atop hers, my lips brushing the top of her head as I did so. All I wanted to do was to be there for her forever, to make sure that no more pain would ever come to her. She had been through more trauma in just the time I had known her than most people did in their entire lives. I was never good at talking about things, preferring to let my actions to speak for me. I didn't know how to say that I was always there for her no matter what, that I cared for her more than words could express. I only hoped that my actions could convey that which I could not say.

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**Sorry that it was so short. I promise the next chapter will be better. Please review!**


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